I've been running my family through Savage Tide using Pathfinder. I've been learning the system as I go, so I didn't bother converting the first adventure...I just used 3.5e while the players used Pathfinder.

But Bullywugs are among my favorite old monster and I hate the 3.5 version of them. And when I saw the Pathfinder Boggard I liked them a lot better. So I decided to convert the bullywugs to Boggards. I replaced all the generic hunters with Boggards, and removed one from each encounter (since Boggards are CR 2 and the hunters CR 1). I then went ahead and converted all the NPC's, starting Diamondback and her stiltwalkers. I figured I'd post them in case someone else might find them useful.

Bardic Performance You are trained to use the Perform skill to create magical effects on those around you, including yourself if desired. You can use this ability for 16 rounds per day. Each round, you can produce any one of the types of bardic performance that you have mastered. Starting a bardic performance is a standard action, but it can be maintained each round as a free action. Changing a bardic performance from one effect to another requires the bard to stop the previous performance and start a new one as a standard action. A bardic performance cannot be disrupted, but it ends immediately if you are killed, paralyzed, stunned, knocked unconscious, or otherwise prevented from taking a free action to maintain it each round. You cannot have more than one bardic performance in effect at one time.

Cantrips You have learned a number of cantrips, or 0-level spells. These spells are cast like any other spells, but they do not consume any slots and may be used again.

Versatile Performance (Dance) (Ex) You can use your bonus in the Perform (Dance) skill in place of your bonus in the Acrobatics or Fly skills. When substituting in this way, you use your total Perform (Dance) skill bonus, including class skill bonus, in place of your Acrobatics or Fly skill bonus, whether or not you have ranks in that skill or if it is a class skill.

Disappearing Act (Su) A street performer can use performance to divert attention from an ally. All creatures within 30 feet that fail a Will save DC 14 (DC 10 + 1/2 the bard's level + the bard's Cha modifier) treat one creature chosen by the bard as if it were invisible. This performance affects one additional creature at 5th level and every 6 levels thereafter. If the targets take any action that would cause them to become visible, they become visible to everyone. The bard cannot use this ability on himself. This ability is a mind-affecting effect that requires visual components. This performance replaces inspire courage.

Distraction (Su) You can use your performance to counter magic effects that depend on sight. Each round of the distraction, make a Perform (act, comedy, dance, or oratory) skill check. Any creature within 30 feet (including yourself) that is affected by an illusion (pattern) or illusion (figment) magical attack may use your Perform check result in place of its saving throw if, after the saving throw is rolled, the Perform skill check proves to be higher. If a creature within range of the distraction is already under the effect of a noninstantaneous illusion (pattern) or illusion (figment) magical attack, it gains another saving throw against the effect each round it sees the distraction, but it must use your Perform skill check result for the save. Distraction does not work on effects that don't allow saves. Distraction relies on visual components.

Fascinate (Su) You can use your performance to cause up to 2 creatures to become fascinated with you. Each creature to be fascinated must be within 90 feet, able to see and hear you, and capable of paying attention to you. You must also be able to see the creatures affected. The distraction of a nearby combat or other dangers prevents this ability from working. Each creature within range receives a Will save (DC 16) to negate the effect. If a creature's saving throw succeeds, you cannot attempt to fascinate that creature again for 24 hours. If its saving throw fails, the creature sits quietly and observes your performance for as long as you continue to maintain it. While fascinated, a target takes a -4 penalty on all skill checks made as reactions, such as Perception checks. Any potential threat to the target allows the target to make a new saving throw against the effect. Any obvious threat, such as someone drawing a weapon, casting a spell, or aiming a weapon at the target, automatically breaks the effect. Fascinate is an enchantment (compulsion), mind-affecting ability. Fascinate relies on audible and visual components in order to function.

Harmless Performer (Su) At 3rd level, a street performer can use performance to appear meek and unworthy of being attacked. While using this performance, whenever an enemy targets the street performer, the enemy must succeed at a Will save DC 14 (DC 10 + 1/2 the bard's level + the bard's Cha bonus) or be unable to attack the bard this round, as per sanctuary. The enemy loses the attack that targeted the bard, but may spend additional attacks targeting other creatures. If the opponent was targeting the street performer with a spell, it must succeed at a concentration check at the same DC or lose the spell. If this check succeeds, it may target another creature with the spell instead. This mind-affecting ability requires audible or visual components. This performance replaces inspire competence.

Inspire Competence (Su) You can use your performance to help an ally succeed at a task. That ally must be within 30 feet and be able to hear you. The ally gets a +2 competence bonus on skill checks with a particular skill as long as she continues to hear your performance. Certain uses of this ability are infeasible, such as Stealth, and may be disallowed at the GM's discretion. A bard can't inspire competence in himself. Inspire competence relies on audible components.

Inspire Courage (Su) You can use your performance to inspire courage in your allies (including yourself), bolstering them against fear and improving their combat abilities. To be affected, an ally must be able to perceive your performance. An affected ally receives a +2 morale bonus on saving throws against charm and fear effects and a +2 competence bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls. Inspire courage is a mind-affecting ability. Inspire courage can use audible or visual components. The bard must choose which component to use when starting his performance.

Quick Change (Ex) At 5th level, a street performer can don a disguise as a standard action by taking a -5 penalty on his check. He can take 10 on Bluff and Disguise checks and use Bluff to create a diversion to hide as a swift action. He can take 20 on a Bluff or Disguise check once per day, plus one time per six levels beyond 5th. This ability replaces lore master.

Streetwise A street performer gains a bonus equal to half his level on Bluff, Disguise, Knowledge (local), and Sleight of Hand checks, Diplomacy or Intimidate checks made to influence crowds, and Diplomacy checks to gather information (minimum +1). This replaces bardic knowledge.

Well-Versed (Ex) You have becomes resistant to the Bardic Performance of others, and to sonic effects in general. You gain a +4 bonus on saving throws made against Bardic Performance, sonic, and language-dependent effects.

STILTWALKER
CR 1
Male Human rogue 2
CN medium humanoid (human, human)
Init +3; Senses Perception +6,
Languages Common
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AC 14, touch 13, flat-footed 11
hp 18 (2HD)
Fort +2, Ref +6, Will +1
Defensive Abilities Evasion,
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Speed 30 ft. (6 squares)
Melee dagger +2 (1d4+1/19-20)
Ranged dagger (thrown) +4 (1d4+1/19-20)
Face 5 ft. Reach 5 ft.
Base Atk +1; CMB +2; CMD 15
Atk Options Sneak Attack 1d6,
Special Actions
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Abilities Str 13, Dex 17, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 8
Special Qualities Bonus Feat, Skilled, Surprise Attack, Trapfinding,
Feats Acrobatic, Armor Proficiency, Light, Simple Weapon Proficiency, Skill Focus (Acrobatics)
Skills Acrobatics +13, Bluff +4, Climb +6, Craft (Carpentry) +5, Diplomacy -1, Disguise -1, Escape Artist +8, Fly +5, Heal +1, Intimidate -1, Perception +6, Perception (Trapfinding) +7, Perform (Comedy) +4, Perform (Untrained) -1, Ride +3, Sense Motive +1, Sleight of Hand +8, Stealth +8, Survival +1, Swim +1,
Possessions alchemist's fire (flask); dagger (x4); outfit (entertainer's); padded;
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Evasion (Ex) You can avoid damage from many area-effect attacks. If you make a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, you instead take no damage. Evasion can only be used if you are wearing light armor or no armor. If you are helpless, you do not gain the benefit of evasion.
Sneak Attack (Ex) If you can catch an opponent when he is unable to defend himself effectively from your attack, you can strike a vital spot for extra damage. Your attack deals 1d6 points of extra damage anytime your target would be denied a Dexterity bonus to AC, or when you flank your target. Should you score a critical hit with a sneak attack, this extra damage is not multiplied. Ranged attacks can count as sneak attacks only if the target is within 30 feet. With a weapon that deals nonlethal damage, you can make a sneak attack that deals nonlethal damage instead of lethal damage. You cannot use a weapon that deals lethal damage to deal nonlethal damage in a sneak attack, not even with the usual -4 penalty. You must be able to see the target well enough to pick out a vital spot and must be able to reach such a spot. You cannot sneak attack while striking a creature with concealment.
Surprise Attack (Ex) During the surprise round, opponents are always considered flat-footed to you, even if they have acted.
Trapfinding (Ex) You add +1 to Perception skill checks made to locate traps and to Disable Device skill checks. You can use the Disable Device skill to disarm magical traps.

HUNTRES LORB-LORB TUB
CR 5
Female Boggard humanoid 3 / barbarian 1 / ranger 2
CE medium humanoid (boggard)
Init +1; Senses Darkvision (60 ft.), Low-light, Perception +8,
Languages Boggard
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AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16
hp 68 (6HD)
Fort +13, Ref +5, Will +1
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Speed 40 ft. (8 squares) Swim 30 ft., Fast Movement, Swamp Stride
Melee handaxe +1 +9 (1d6+2/x3)
Melee tongue +2 (0)
Face 5 ft. Reach 5 ft.
Base Atk +5; CMB +7; CMD 19
Atk Options Favored Enemy (Humanoid (Human)) +2, Rage,
Special Actions Terrifying Croak (DC 12),
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Abilities Str 15, Dex 13, Con 20, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 8
Special Qualities Fast Movement, Hold Breath, Rage, Sticky Tongue, Swamp Stride, Track +1, Wild Empathy +1,
Feats Armor Proficiency, Light, Armor Proficiency, Medium, Dodge, Endurance, Martial Weapon Proficiency, Shield Proficiency, Simple Weapon Proficiency, Two-Weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus (Handaxe)
Skills Acrobatics +4, Acrobatics (Jump) +20, Appraise -1, Bluff -1, Climb +8, Craft (Untrained) -1, Diplomacy -1, Disguise -1, Intimidate -1, Perception +8, Perform (Untrained) -1, Stealth +6, Stealth (In swamps) +14, Survival +7, Survival (Follow or identify tracks) +8, Swim +15,
Possessions handaxe +1; outfit (peasant's); potion of barkskin +3; studded leather;
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Favored Enemy (Humanoid (Human)) (Ex) You gain a +2 bonus on Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival checks when using these skills against humans. Likewise, you get a +2 bonus on weapon attack and damage rolls against such creatures. You may make Knowledge Skill checks untrained to identify such creatures.
Hold Breath (Ex) You can hold your breath for 80 rounds before you risk drowning or suffocating.
Rage (Ex) You can call upon inner reserves of strength and ferocity, granting you additional combat prowess. You can rage for 9 rounds per day. You can enter rage as a free action. The total number of rounds of rage per day is renewed after resting for 8 hours, although these hours do not need to be consecutive. While in rage, you gain a +4 morale bonus to your Strength and a +4 morale bonus to Constitution, as well as a +2 morale bonus on Will saves. In addition, you take a -2 penalty to Armor Class. The increase to Constitution grants you 12 hit points, but these disappear when the rage ends and are not lost first like temporary hit points. While in rage, you cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except Acrobatics, Fly, Intimidate, and Ride) or any ability that requires patience or concentration. You can end your rage as a free action and are fatigued after rage for a number of rounds equal to 2 times the number of rounds spent in the rage. You cannot enter a new rage while fatigued or exhausted but can otherwise enter rage multiple times during a single encounter or combat. If you fall unconscious, your rage immediately ends, placing you in peril of death.
Sticky Tongue (Ex) A creature hit by a boggard's tongue attack cannot move more than 10 feet away from the boggard and takes a -2 penalty to AC as long as the tongue is attached (this penalty does not stack if multiple tongues are attached). The tongue can be removed by making an opposed Strength check as a standard action or by dealing 2 points of slashing damage to the tongue (AC 11, damage does not deplete the boggard's actual hit points). The boggard cannot move more than 10 feet away from the target, but the boggard can release its tongue as a free action. Unlike a giant frog, a boggard cannot pull targets toward it with its tongue.
Swamp Stride (Ex) A boggard can move through any sort of natural difficult terrain at its normal speed while within a swamp. Magically altered terrain affects a boggard normally.
Terrifying Croak (Su) Once per hour, a boggard can, as a standard action, emit a loud and horrifying croak. Any nonboggard creature within 30 feet of the boggard must make a DC 12 Will save or become shaken for 1d4 rounds. Creatures that succeed at this save cannot be affected again by the same boggard's croak for 24 hours. Creatures that are already shaken become frightened for 1d4 rounds instead.
Track (Ex) You gain +1 to Survival checks made to follow or identify tracks.
Wild Empathy (Ex) You can improve the attitude of an animal. This abilty functions just like Diplomacy check made to improve the attitude of a person. You roll 1d20+1 to determine the Wild Empathy check result. The typical domestic animal has a starting attitude of indifferent, while wild animals are usually unfriendly. To use Wild Empathy, you and the animal must be within 30 feet of one another under normal circumstances. Generally, influencing an animal in this way takes 1 minute, but as with influencing people, it might take more or less time. You can use this ability to influence a magical beast with an Intellegence score of 1 or 2, but you take a -4 penalty on the check.

Hi, guys. I'm not sure if this should be in the rules or the advice section.

I've used the Beginner Box to transition my kids from B/X D&D to Pathfinder. Since 3.x is my favorite version of the D&D rules, I was really excited, but my daughter loves her old B/X character and didn't want to convert her, so I wanted to give them something "special" to give her an attachment to her new character.

I ran Masters of the Fallen Fortress and there's a mundane shield in that module with a dolphin on it. My daughter loves dolphins and grabbed it. Anyway, to make a long story short, she also loves mermaids, so I decided to make it a specific shield that, once per day, can turn her into a mermaid, and then back again.

There's no duration on the item. In fact, were she to turn into a mermaid and then lose the shield, she would remain a mermaid forever. She gains the mermaid swim speed, land speed, and the ability to breathe under water.

Otherwise, it's just a +1 light wooden shield. And now the characters are getting to a level where I'm realizing I kind of need to know what the specifics of the shield are (caster level, cost, equivelant enhancement bonus) in case she wants to add additional enhancement bonuses to it.

Problem is, I don't really understand the crafting rules when it comes to specific items. Might someone be willing to build this for me? Thanks in advance.

I think it's awesome that your Paladin turned himself in. In my opinion he deserves his day in court for that alone. Instead of having the BBEG try and kill them, have the BBEG gloat and be overconfident. He can't believe this idiot just played right into his hands.

Then, let the Paladin have his day in the spotlight. Let him come up with an inspiring speech to address the judge and the audience. Let him have the satisfaction of seeing his words have an effect...he starts to see a glimmer of hope in the commoners' eyes as they're inspired by his words...

...and then the Judge breaks the spell and pronounces a sentence of death. There's outrage in the courtroom. The protestors are quickly and brutally put down. The Paladin and his crew are dragged back to their prison cell and will be hung at dawn. Now they have to escape. Maybe now the old woman comes. Or maybe it's a whole "crew" of commoners, each who was so inpsired by the paladin's speech that they have decided to take the ultimate risk and help him escape. They're all pathetic commoner-1s but they each have one special skill...a blacksmith to cut the bars...a tavern wench to distract the guards...whatever.

Lockgo, I think you've discovered that there are some flaws with the Pathfinder economic system. I remember long, long ago some discussion on the WoTC boards that tried to reconcile this issue, but I don't remember the specifics and that thread is no doubt buried under WoTC's "let's all forget 3rd edition ever happened" policy.

Bottom line: in third edition it seems you're not really encouraged or expected to have combat hirelings. Even followers, from the leadership feat, aren't really expected to fight for you. I suspect designers were afraid of over-complicating combat (never mind that spellcasters and druids can do worse with summons).

My recommendation would be to toss out the 3rd/Pathfinder edition rules for hirelings and adapt new rules from a system that expected characters to have them. Adapt the AD&D or classic D&D rules. There's been a recent thread about this very subject on the AD&D section of the Dragonsfoot forums that you might find interesting, and it seems like those rules could be adapted to Pathfinder verbatim.

I'm running Savage Tide in the opposite direction. The players are using Pathfinder, I'm using 3.5. The differences are totally invisible.

However, just because the differences are invisible doesn't mean they're not significant. The power level of Pathfinder is slightly greater than the power level of 3.5. In other words, Pathfinder characters and monsters are both slightly more powerful than 3.5 characters and monsters of the same CR. By way of (the most obvious) example, look at Pathfinder NPC's. An Evil 5th level fighter is CR 4 in Pathfinder. That same Evil 5th Level fighter is CR 5 in 3.5. And the Pathfinder evil fighter is actually more powerful, with more feats, and with special abilities like weapon and armor specialization.

So I'd be a little wary running a Pathfinder adventure for 3.5 characters. I'd worry about it being too challenging.

On the other hand, it sounds like your characters have been playing 3.5 for a while and probably have pretty good system mastery. If they're taking advantage of a lot of the splat books then you probably need a big challenge for them, anyway, since those splat books are definitely not balanced with core. In that case, running a Pathfinder adventure path is probably just the challenge your players need.

Ustalav -- where a former edition of the Inner Sea Campaign Setting referenced a Caves of Chaos near the Worldwound -- would work quite well. I think that the campaign would be quite interesting. (I imagine the Castellan has to put up with this idiot because he is connected to higher nobility.)

I checked out Ustalav and I agree that the edge of the blight would be perfect. Thanks for the suggestion!

Just remember that hirelings technically are run by the DM. S/he may allow you to run them to ease his/her book keeping, but at any moment they can turn on you. So treat them accordingly (either by not trusting them, treating them well so they have no reason to turn on you, or both).

The prices you quote sound really, really low. I don't know about Pathfinder, but IIRC the prices in the 3.5 DMG were not for active combat duty. Think of it this way...would your character risk his or her life acting as the torch bearer of a high level NPC for such a paltry sum?

Again, I don't know about Pathfinder, but in the old classic/basic D&D rules a hireling also got a percentage of both loot and experience. It wasn't a full share of either, but it was significant.

So I've always wanted to run a military campaign in the style of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series or C.S. Forester's Hornblower series. The basic archetype being that the protagonists (player characters) are volunteers or conscripts into a military unit and the campaign traces their careers from put-upon raw recruits up through the ranks until they achieve status and wealth as officers or even owners of a mercenary company. Again, per the literary tropes of the genre, that ascent is marked not just by fights against the enemy, but also fights against corrupt and evil compatriots, and especially fights against incompetant officers. I've had a pretty clear view of such a campaign, but I've never found an adventure that properly fit into that mold.

Now, however, inspired by William Ronald's excellent Pathfinder conversion, I picked up my old, old, old copy of Keep on the Borderlands and started flipping through it. Back in the day it had the reputation of being a meatgrinder for starting characters (who used to roll random starting hit points and died at 0). The typical way to "take on the caves" was to hire a ton of man-at-arms and use them as meatshields to protect the player characters. So as I'm reminiscing about this it suddenly hits me...what if you ran it so that the player characters are the hapless hired meat-shields? So here's my idea for a modified, more militaristic background to the adventure...

As per the original module, The Keep on the Borderlands is a lone outpost protecting the lands of law from the ravaging humanoid hordes of chaos (in keep on the borderlands talk humanoid specifically means orcs and goblinoids, as compared to demi-humans who are the player character races). Let's say those hordes are somewhere to the north of the woods in the wilderness map, and the road that runs past the Caves of Chaos is a long and important trade link to another lawful "civilized" land...maybe a dwarven or elven city that provides an important resource like mithril or adamantine. Since the humanoids are, well, chaotic, they don't work well together and it's been a dangerous, but managable job controlling them. However, the Keep's Castellan has been receiving disturbing reports of humanoid armies massing in the north. It appears they are uniting under a single leader. The Castellan warns his superiors to the south and is kept busy sending out constant patrols of light cavalry and familiar or animal companion spies to make sure that the armies of chaos aren't about to attack. Meanwhile, the great Lords of the south have called in their Feudal Levies and are sending armed Man-at-arms north to help garrison the Keep, under the Castellan's command.

The player characters are one such levy. They could fight under the banner of entirely different noble houses, or they could be united and fight under the same noble banner. The latter would probably bond them together a little better. But either could work, depending on the background of the characters, because at the Keep they aren't fighting under their noble house, anyway, they're fighting under the banner of the Castellan. Old loyalties are supposed to be thrown away. Using a feudal background system, let's say under the current emergency situation the men-at-arms have a 90 day feudal obligation to serve the Castellan. They arrive at the Keep and are immediately assigned to the command of a young noble Captain.

Enter the first major antagonistic NPC that the characters will face. The young noble Captain has a negative charisma modifier and is incompetant. To make matters worse, he's a completely self-obsessed glory hound who wants to make a name for himself. He's a complete pain in the butt for the characters the moment they arrive, insisting that everyone purchase and wear "regulation gear" consisting of studded leather armor, longspear, longsword and dagger. Anyone who complains, like a Wizard, that they can't use the gear, are dressed down in public and told to "suck it up" and stop acting "superior" because in this man's army no one's treated special and everyone has to act the same and that means the same equipment! He really doesn't care about the "special skills" of any of the PC's, like spell-casting, because from his perspective everyone's just a meatshield there to die for his own glory, anyway.

Meanwhile, the Castellan quite rightfully begins to worry about the Caves of Chaos. They've never been adequately explored, especially the caves that lead deeper under the forest. Do they connect with a network of underdark caverns? Could the caves serve as a highway for humanoids to suddenly appear on their flank and cut off the important highway? The Castellan decides he needs to reconnoitre those caves. And the jackass Captain of the PC's volunteers himself and his squad for the job.

The Captain rides his beautiful white stallion, shining in his plate mail and smiling at the tavern wenches, while the PC's are forced to march beside him in their worn boots and leather armor. When they reach the caves the Captain decides to read a proclomation out loud to each of the cave entrances, warning that the inhabitants are about to be slaughtered. He then sends the PC's and the rest of the squad into the kobold cave, telling them to exterminate anyone they see. It quickly becomes apparent that he doesn't see this as a recon mission. If he can clear the caves, he is certain he will get promoted. To make matters worse, he refuses to enter the caves himself, since his horse is too large.

That turns out to be a blessing in disguise, since once out of sight of the Captain the PC's can finally take off their armor if they want to, access weapons they're more used to that they've hidden in their packs, etc. But, once they've taken casualties and retreat from the caves, the Captain refuses to let them return to the keep for rest and recuperation. He's decided they have to exterminate the entire cave system before returning to the keep. They will return victorious, he declares in a rousing speech, or they will not return at all! He has already pitched a luxurious pavilion tent in which an attendant cleric creates sumptious food and water for him while the hapless PC's are forced to sleep in the open and eat hard tack and corn dodgers. (the cleric attendant should, by the way, I think be the evil cleric in disguise).

This then sets up the rest of the campaign. The characters can't possibly clear the caves all in one go. Ultimately they have to do something about the jackass Captain (and, ultimately, his "lackey" Cleric). Do they mutiny? Do they assassinate him? Do they go awol? Do they somehow use diplomacy and reason and excellent, subversive leadership to turn him into a competant leader? Do they somehow lure him into the caves and let him get killed? Do they include the rest of the NPC man-at-arms in their plans? etc., etc. All this while also fighting the humanoids and exploring the module as written.

So, why am I subjecting you to this incredibly long drawn-out post? Testing the waters, so to speak. Would this kind of campaign prove overwhelmingly frustrating to you as a player? Would you find it interesting? Are there aspects to the Caves of Chaos or to Pathfinder in particular that I'm not thinking of that would immediately derail this kind of campaign? Do you have any better or additional ideas as to how to set up or play out this sort of thing? Where in Golarian could I place such a Keep? (or should it be in a generic world like the original module?)

Here's my proposal for dealing with the Halfling's small size as it pertains to weapons in the Beginner Box. Something like:

TOO SMALL FOR WEAPONS: Every weapon has a Hands box that tells you how many hands you hold it with when you use it in combat. Due to their small size, however, Halfling characters use these weapons differently. If a weapon is light, a Halfling can use it either one-handed or two-handed (for extra damage). If a weapon is one-handed, a halfling must use both hands to use it. If a weapon is two-handed, it is too large for a halfling to use. The three exceptions to this rule are the Light Crossbow, Shortbow and Sling, all of which the Halfling can use despite them requiring two hands. The only weapon a Halfling may use the Weapon Finesse Feat with is a dagger.

How do you guys rule on Purple Worms and other burrowing creatures with tremor sense when it comes to surprise rounds? Do you enforce an automatic surprise on characters as it bursts out of the ground a la Tremors or Dune?

I recently ruled that the characters/victims still get a Perception roll to hear the creature coming, which means pretty much no surprise for a Purple Worm (since it's so big it's easy to perceive). So I was left with either auto-surprise or no surprise and I went with the latter.

Second question: Does a purple worm get to bite -or- sting or bite -and- sting. Unlike most creatures in the SRD, the Purple Worm's attacks are seperated by a comma, not an "and" or an "or". That left me scratching my head.

I don't have the BB but are you saying that in the BB rules filth fever adds the sickened condition to someone who fails the save for the day in addition to it's regular effects?

Or does is replace the regular effects of filth fever with the sickened condition?

Or is it that there is simply an affliction called disease that produces the sickened condition?

Just curious.

I don't have access to the GM Guide right now but by my memory here's the (somewhat complicated) answer to your question:

There's no ability damage in the BB. So Poison and Disease are specific monster effects, rather than their own rules. That's similar to the Basic or AD&D way that they worked.

I think the Dire Rat is the only creature that causes disease in the BB, but maybe I missed another. Anyway, the way the Dire Rat works, is if you fail your save, you immediately gain the Sickened condition (there are conditions in the Beginner Box). You have the Sickened Condition for the entire day. The next day, you can make another saving throw. If you succeed, you lose the sickened condition and are healed. If you fail, you keep the sickened condition. You remain sickened, with one saving throw per day, until you make your saving throw.

You technically can't die from the disease, but sickened gives you a -2 to pretty much everything, so it's pretty debilitating in my opinion. When I played 3.5 edition, I found that the old version of disease, with incubation periods and daily saving throws, were pretty much ignored and yawned at by players. Unless it was a really deadly magical disease or extenuating circumstances specifically designed to screw them over, they would just finish the current adventure within the incubation period and hole up in an inn until they kicked the dissease. So although with the old rules, you could technically die, no one ever did. That's why I find the Beginner Box rules more attractive.

City State of the Invincible Overlord/The Wilderlands of High Adventure has always been similar, with beggars and such being able to kick the butts of first level adventurers. It seems weird at first, but upon running it I found it made for a much more exciting game. Your first level adventurers are bungling hicks come to the big city to make a name for themselves, and until they have some experience under their belt they are woefully outclassed by everything they meet, and are taken advantage of by everyone they meet.

It might make a little more sense if you imagine an old west/frontier setting instead of a typical high fantasy setting. In old west movies, your cavalry soldiers were conscripts from "back east", which was synonymous in most movies with "lame". They were only effective en masse, and mostly they hid out in their forts. The bandits held the towns in terror, with everyone, including the sherriff, afraid of standing up to them. The barmaid was handy during a barfight smashing people over the head with improvised weapons. And the bandits ultimately got defeated by the local drunk, who decided to get sober for once in his life, who was often also the local homeless guy.

In the above scenario, the NPC galleries work pretty well. The bandits are more terrifying than the ineffectual soldiers. The local drunkard is the most bad@ss of the bunch, and if the NPC's can sober him up recruit him to their cause, they have a real chance of standing up against the bandits. The barmaid, too, will provide help when she can do it without drawing attention to herself. All we're missing from the NPC gallery is the prostitute with a heart of gold. The best movie example, oddly enough, is Blazing Saddles, which plays upon all the cliches in the same movie.

If you're concerned about the simplicity of explaining feats and calculating the -8 penalty, another option would be to completely disallow firing into melee, forcing archers to draw their swords. That's how the old D&D Basic Game did it, but I'll admit it was easier in that game because there were no rules for stowing and drawing weapons (so everyone could be armed with bows, fire on the first round of combat, and automatically switch to sword and shield on the second round of combat).

Disease has always been kind of lame and relatively easy to deal with in 3.x. So I while I was running Savage Tide for my family using the beginner box rules and one of them got diseased by savage monkeys, I figured it was no big deal. I remembered Dire Rats had disease so I looked them up in the Game Mastery Guide.

Holy moley! Sickened for an entire day?! My family's characters had to retreat back to the boat and rest for two days before the Cleric made her save against the disease, finally kicking it. That messed up the timeline of the adventure, but I just rolled with it.

I love this new version of disease. Finally giant (dire) rats are given the respect they used to have in 1st Edition. Any chance of making the full game disease like this?

Mearls is saying the mistake with 4e is that it's too focused on the player. By trying to compete with video games they just proved video games were better. Because video games don't need those pesky dungeonmasters.

So what can't video games do? They can't let you be the dungeonmaster. So now WOTC is going to focus on the Dungeonmaster.

I always thought Barbarians had to be non-lawful because the concept of lawful implies order and restraint. At least, I always interpreted it as this. Monks need to be lawful because they achieve their powers through clarity of mind, and Barbarians can't be lawful because their rage is giving in to their passions and becoming an unfettered, raging weapon, which goes against the order and self-control aspects of the lawful axis.

Well, my two cents, at least.

That.

When talking about class restrictions, law and chaos seems to be more about passion versus self-discipline. Monks and Paladins need to be lawful because they require ascetic self-control to achieve their mystic goals. Barbarians are the opposite...they give themselves over entirely to an altered state of consciousness over which they have limited self control.

Mendev is the spitting image of El Cid style middle ages Spain. Or, at least, it's the spitting image of how middle ages Spain saw herself during the reconquista. Mendev is not the Crusader States. The crusades were a foreign war...an invasion of distant holy lands. The reconquista was, ideologically at least, a "reconquest" of lands usurped by a foreign invader. The Queen of Mendev is Lawful Good, but her Captains and Warlords range from idealistic to outright evil, as do her inquisitors. Again, perfect for the reconquista.

Remember that in the middle ages Spain was not a unified country (unless you can say it was unified under the Moors). It was unified by the spirit of the reconquista, and that war was fought for 800 years. It created a martial culture so that by the time that war was won Spaniards were looking for new lands and cultures to conquer like their "heroic" forebears. The discovery of the New World was the perfect outlet for that aggressive spirit.

I'm considering giving the BB to my Godson for Christmas, but he already has two characters from the old Moldvay basic set and if I get this for him I'd like to convert his characters over for him. I did this with my own kids and it was a useful exercise, but my Godson lives in a different city and without me there to help him convert, I'm afraid he'll get overwhelmed. The ideal solution would be if I could pre-convert his character onto one of the large-format character sheets used for the pre-gens. Those character sheets are so perfect for a newbie learning the game. Has anyone created a word template, or a form-fillable pdf, of those sheets? I know I'd have to get them printed somewhere, since they're over-sized, but I think it would be worth it.

While I'm at it, has anyone created a BB character class template? One of my Godson's characters is an Elf, which has no equivelant in the Beginner Box. The closest Pathfinder equivelant is the Magus, so I'd love to convert the Magus to a BB format for him.

Someone did a BB Monster template for Word that is fantastic. That's the kind of thing I'm looking for.

Power and wealth is the game. I'm the king and everyone else is a piece in my game.

I agree with Maddigan. Walter White endangered and almost murdered a child in order to manipulate Pinkman. That's evil in my book. Jesse murdered an "innocent" chemist in cold blood. Due to the circumstances surrounding the incident, one could make the case that wasn't evil, but it certainly precludes him from being good. Gus is definitely lawful. He works the system and adheres closely to a code of law. And that isn't even a code he created himself. It's a code under which all the organized criminals operate...a code of "honor". I've seen Lawful Evil generally described in two different ways...as organized crime (which fits Gus to a T) or as an evil empire (totalitarian regime).

What makes this an interesting post is that it addresses what the entire show is about: the transformation of Walter White.

For a potentially even more complex exercise: what is the alignment of Dexter?

your play-by-play is excellent! i've been reading the materials and prepping some foam board tiles to run my first 3.5e dungeon bash. other than the publisher website, have you seen any other resources? do you have any suggestions or comments in general about running this system successfully?

Sorry about not getting back to you sooner, Ultraviolet...I've been busy and away from this forum.

Other than the publisher's website no, I haven't really seen any other resources. If you haven't downloaded goblinoid dungeons, I recommend it. I think it's more difficult than the standard dungeons.

Tips...let's see. I'd say the "basic" dungeon generator is more balanced than the "advanced" one. The advanced one can sometimes create some very difficult situations and, occasionally, even dead-end dungeons. That said, I actually prefer the advanced one, since it forces you to pay attention to light and darkness. So if you use the advanced one, I'd say just be prepared to fudge occasional rolls or to adapt it slightly to your personal preferences.

I also like to play on top of a wet-erase gaming mat. Even though I don't draw the dungeon out on it -- I use dungeon tiles -- I draw the turn tracker on it and I write down initiative orders on it. I also give each character its own colored set of dice, and have a couple of sets for enemies. That way for initiative I can throw ever die at once, which makes it easier to organize. And then when going through combat, it makes it easier for me to remember what the actual die roll is -- my eye doesn't wander to a different die and make me suddenly try to remember which one I just rolled.

The only legitimate trouble I've had is occasionally losing my place in the stat-block document. When you have an encounter consisting of several enemies that are all on different pages, it's very easy to lose track of them. I'm not sure of a way to solve that.

Good luck, have fun and be prepared for occasional defeat and retreat. A few bad rolls on the turn track can cascade some really nasty encounters right on top of each other.

Because the PC's aren't terribly banged-up, they decide to spend only a single day in the city in order to minimize their upkeep. That upkeep comes to 20 gold pieces each for Asa Amir and Hen Net, and only 10 gold pieces for Sister Soldier. They pay Ralph Arta's cut to his next of kin, as well as to the Church of Desna for proper burial. They keep most of Ralph's kit, however, knowing full well that they need to find a new thief to replace him. They exchange the hemp rope for the new silk rope they found, and they buy a new grappling hook to go with it. They have four cure light wounds potions, which they re-distribute so that every party member has one (including the new guy). Asa replaces the acid she used. Hen Net purchases another scroll of unseen servant and this time successfully copies it into his spellbook. He also learns Detect Secret Doors and Cause Fear. Finally, he buys a scroll of magic weapon. Sister Soldier tries to find a masterwork dwarven waraxe, but none is available. They find a halfling "locksmith" to replace Ralph Arta. I learned from the mistake of using Wisdom as a rogue dump stat, so the new rogue gives up strength for wisdom. Additionally, I've read a lot that people think the sneak-attack rogue is over-powered right now so I wanted to test that theory with a two-weapon fighting sneak attack rogue. I wanted to give him a chain shirt since tumble no longer requires a light load, but then I noticed that open locks has been folded into disable device and they both have armor check penalties. So I gave him good old leather armor instead. I’ve also had to adjust the other characters’ skills to account for changes in version 2.

Quest -- Blow the Dam (Goblinoid Dungeons Encounter Table). The mountain range nearby is infested by legions upon legions of goblins. The only way to get rid of them is to flood the dungeon they're living in. The party will bring explosives into the dungeon, light them on fire and get out, causing the lake above to flood the dungeon.
Side Quest -- Petty Warlord. One of the creatures in the side-quest room is the right-hand of a local warlord. Defeating him increases the reward.

Round 1:
Random Encounter (1): None
ICN1 Hen Net moves toward where the corridor bends north and then summons an ghostly servant, who, in turn, draws a torch, flint and steel from his backpack.
ICN2 Hellakin races forward and turns the corner to reveal two wooden doors and a T-junction ahead. So far the corridor is well-lit with wall sconces.
ICN3 Asa casts light on her holy symbol and then moves forward behind Hen Net.
ICN4 Sister Soldier moves foward in front of Hen Net.

Round 2:
Random Encounter (1): None
ICN1-4 Take up a position outside the first door while the ghostly servant lights a the torch.

Round 8:
22 Hen Net: Delays.
16 Hellakin: Throws his dagger, lodging it in the hobgoblin’s eye (4 hp plus 6 hp sneak attack). He then draws his shortsword and steps forward.
16 Sister Soldier: Moves in and puts the hobgoblin out of its misery (7 hp; hobgoblin at -7 hp).
15 Hen Net: Comes out of delay and moves up to loot the hobgoblin of 100 gold pieces. The unseen servant moves next to Hen Net and takes a potion from his pack.
15 Asa Amir: Moves up to loot the hobgoblin of a potion of bull’s strength, but doesn’t recognize it.
06 Hobgoblin Fighter: Bleeds (now at -8).

END OF COMBAT

Post Combat Analysis: So long as Hellakin gets the drop on a monster, he's pretty dangerous with a chucked dagger. But he'd be even more dangerous in standard 3.5, since halflings lose their +1 thrown weapon bonus in the Pathfinder RPG.

Round 11:
Random Encounter (4): Bugbear.
Hearing his brethren’s scream, a bugbear rushes forward to battle!
18 Bugbear: Surprises Hen Net, slamming the sorcerer in the back of the head with his spiked club (6 hp damage; Hen Net at -2 hp).
17 Hobgoblins: First one bleeds (now at -5 hp). The second one slides over in an attempt to stab Hellakin, but misses.
14 Hen Net: Bleeds (now at -3 hp).
13 Asa Amir: Slides over to flank the hobgoblin, but misses.
08 Hellakin: Also misses to take advantage of flanking against the hobgoblin.
04 Sister Soldier: Cuts down the hobgoblin (9 hp damage; hobgoblin at -4 hp) before spinning around to threaten the bugbear.

Round 18:
19 Orc: Challenges Asa but misses.
18 Bubgear: Spins to club Asa for 5 hp damage.
17 Hobgoblins: Both dead.
13 Asa Amir: Teleports 20’ as a swift action and then moves 20’ before channeling positive energy (Asa, Sister, Hen Net, and Hellakin all heal 5. Asa now at max, Hen Net now at 1, Hellakin now at -3, Sister now at 3).

Round 19:
19 Orc: Swings at Sister but misses.
18 Bugbear: Clubs Sister back down to -1 (4 hp damage).
14 Hen Net: Casts grease defensively, causing the orc to slip and fall. Also commands his unseen servant to feed Sister Soldier a potion of cure light wounds, healing her 9 hit points (Sister Soldier now at 8).
13 Asa Amir: Channels again for 1 point, healing Hen Net to 2, Sister to 10, and Hellakin to -2.
04 Sister Soldier: Takes a full defense action and then stands. Both the bugbear and the orc miss their attacks of opportunity.

Round 20:
19 Orc: Misses Hen Net from the ground.
18 Bugbear: Slips and falls, also missing Hen Net from the ground.
14 Hen Net: Takes a full defense action and stands. Both the Orc and Bugbear miss their attacks of opportunity. The unseen servant draws a potion from Sister's pack.
13 Asa Amir: Channels positive energy a third time, for 2 points, healing Hen Net to 4, Sister to 12, and Hellakin to 0.
04 Sister Soldier: Picks up her axe and misses the bugbear.

Round 22:
19 Orc: Misses the now-conscious halfling.
18 Bugbear: Also misses the halfling.
14 Hen Net: Attacks the bugbear over the halfling, chanelling arcane energy into the point of the ranseur, and dropping it (6 hp damage drops the bugbear to -1). The unseen servant takes Hellakin's potion of cure light wounds.
13 Asa Amir: Channels positive energy her fifth and final time, for 5 points, healing everyone to full.
08 Hellakin: Delays.
04 Sister Soldier: Finally cuts down the orc.
03 Hellakin: Comes out of delay to stand and pick up his shortsword.

END OF COMBAT

Post Combat Analysis: This is one of those nasty "Dominoe Effect" encounters that are somewhat common in Dungeon Bash. When you start combat, it's more likely that other monsters hear and come to investigate. Not only does this increase the CR of the random encounter, the creature generally comes from behind the party, flanking it, and always acts first in the initiative round. Although I made a mistake with Hen Net, forgetting he was second level and had more than 8 hit points, this probably would have been a TPK in 3.5 edition. Sister Soldier couldn't hit her way out of a paper bag in this encounter, missing the bugbear (despite flanking and a +1 hatred bonus) time and time again. And note that Hellakin's upgrade from a d6 hit points in 3.5 edition to a d8 in the Pathfinder RPG literally saved his life. That crit would have killed him in a single blow if he'd only had 8 hit points. But most valuable player definitely goes to Asa Amir. Being able to swift-action teleport 20 feet (travel domain) allowed her to move another 20 feet (banded mail) so that only her allies were within 30' of her and the bugbear and orc were just out of range of her channeling. Then, being able to channel 5 times to get the party back on their feet and finish the encounter just couldn't have happened in 3.5. In 3.5, Asa would have been trapped behind the bugbear and orc (no teleport to move past them) and would eventually have been clubbed to death...a Total Party Kill. And it was only a CR 2 encounter.

Round 23:
Random Encounter (2): None.
ICN1: Hen Net moves back to the hobgoblin fighter and takes a potion (cure light wounds but doesn't know what it is).
ICN2: Hellakin takes 90 gp from the bugbear and then picks up his dagger.
ICN3: Asa Amir finds nothing on the dead hobgoblins and moves forward to continue exploring.
ICN4: Sister Soldier moves up to guard Asa.

Round 24:
Random Encounter (2): None.
ICN1-4: Hellakin moves up and discovers the door is locked while the rest of the party take up a position behind him.

Round 25:
Random Encounter (3): None
ICN1-4: Hellakin sheathes his dagger and draws his tools while the rest of the party waits.

Round 26-30:
Random Encounter (3-4): None.
ICN1-4: Hellakin tries unsuccessfully to pick the lock. As he does so, Hen Net uses detect magic to identify the potion of cure light wounds from the hobgoblin. He hands the potion to Sister Soldier, who stows it in her pack.

Post Combat Analysis: Again, the orcs should have thrown javelins instead of running straight into Hen Net's ranseur. I've corrected this mis-tactic in future encounters. None the less, Hellakin's stealth bonus (+4 for small halfling) is synergizing nicely with Hen Net's Divination Specialty (may always attack in the surprise round). As long as Hellakin initiates a surprise round, Hen Net can take advantage of it, too. When Hen Net gains levels and gets some "boom" spells this ability should really start to shine.

Post Combat Analysis: This time the orc followed the proper tactics, which negated Hen Net's advantage of readying an action in the surprise round. None the less, the stealthy halfling was able to attack from an invisible position and take the orc out. I've noticed he has plenty of opportunity in the dungeon bash environment to hide, since there are so many side-door alcoves and winding corridors. Ralph Arta should probably have had more success sneak attacking with his bow if he'd used the same tactics (but on the other hand Ralph wasn't as good at hiding). Bottom line, though, is that if given a choice between having Hellakin sneak attack someone or having Sister Soldier attack, I'd choose Sister Soldier. She's still doing more consistent damage than the halfling.

Round 40:
Random Encounter (2): None.
ICN1-4: Hellakin draws his back-up dagger and swings open the door, revealing a dark chamber through which runs an underground river. Fishing in the chamber is a hobgoblin fighter, who has heard the party and readied his defenses. None the less, the party gets the jump on him...

BEGIN COMBAT

Round 41:
26 Hen Net: Delays.
23 Hellakin: Chucks his dagger a the creature, but it bounces off his armor. Hellakin than moves into combat.
22 Hen Net: Comes out of delay, moves behind Hellakin, and misses with his ranseur.
21 Sister Soldier: Rushes in and misses the beast.
18 Asa Amir: Rushes in and clubs the gobber upside the head (5 hp damage).
05 Hobgoblin Fighter: Surrounded and therefore unable to safely buff himself, he stabs ineffectually at the halfling and whistles for his guard-wolf.

Round 43:
27 Wolf: Snaps at Hellakin, who dances out of the way.
23 Hellakin: Delays.
22 Hen Net: Continues to distract the hobgoblin.
21 Sister Soldier: Delays.
18 Asa Amir: Clubs the wolf (3 hp damage) and steps out of the way.
17 Sister Soldier: Comes out of delay to chop the hobgoblin to the ground (10 hp damage; hobgoblin at -2) and then step over to take Asa Amir's place.
05 Hobgoblin: Bleeds (at -3).

Round 44: <---Photo Link
Random Encounter (4): Orc.
Another orc, hearing the clash of steel and screams of the dying, rushes from the darkness to give battle.
28 Orc: Runs down the corridor to take a position behind the wolf.
27 Wolf: Snaps again at Hellakin, and again misses.
23 Hellakin: Delays.
22 Hen Net: Commands his ghostly servant to aid Hellakin while he tries to distract the wolf with his polearm but fails (failed aid another, unseen servant moves).
18 Asa Amir: Succeeds in distracting the wolf, but...
17 Sister Soldier: Fails to take advantage of the distraction, missing with an overhand chop.
05 Hobgoblin: Bleeds (at -4).

Round 45:
28 Orc: Chucks a javelin at Hen Net, but the projectile bounces off the diviner's force field.
27 Wolf: Snaps again at Hellakin, who again dances out of the way.
22 Hen Net: The ghostly servant feeds Hellakin a potion of cure light wounds (heals 3 hp; Hellakin now at 3 hp) while Hen Net continues to keep the wolf at bay (failed aid another).
18 Asa Amir: Successfully distracts the wolf.
17 Sister Soldier: Finally cuts down the canine (11 hp damage; wolf now at -1). Then backs up away from the orc.
16 Hellakin: Comes out of delay, picks up his dagger, and prepares to stab the orc if it comes in range.
05 Hobgoblin: Bleeds (at -5).

Round 46:
Random Encounter (4): None.
29 Hellakin: Readied action goes off (see below).
28 Orc: The orc moves forward, but spots Hellakin out of the corner of his eye, deflecting the hobbit's shortsword. The orc's counter attack is clumsy however, and the falchion sparks against the corner of the dungeon wall.
22 Hen Net: Finding a sudden opening, the sorcerous warrior guts the orc with his ranseur (6 hp damage; orc at -1).
18 Asa Amir: Loots the hobgoblin of 100 gp and a potion of cure light wounds (though she hasn't identified it yet).
17 Sister Soldier: Loots the hobgoblin of a potion of bull's strength (though he hasn't identified it yet).

END OF COMBAT

Post Combat Analysis: Another domino-encounter, this one was far less nasty since the party was caught in a room instead of a corridor, and because the highest CR creature was 1 (the wolf) instead of 2 (a bugbear). I got to test out the CMB rules a little bit because the wolf has the trip ability, but there wasn't any big change there, really, from 3.5.

Round 47:
Random Encounter (2): None.
ICN1 Hen Net: Moves forward toward the fountain while his ghostly servant retrieves the last potion of cure light wounds from Asa's pack.
ICN2 Hellakin: Moves out of the room, stops next to the orc he killed with a flying dagger, and sheathes his back-up dagger.
ICN3 Asa Amir: Moves out into the corridor behind Hen Net.
ICN4 Sister Soldier: Loots the hobgoblin of his last potion of cure light wounds (though it isn't identified) and moves out into the corridor next to Hellakin.

Round 49: <---Photo Link
21 Sister Soldier: Moves next to Hen Net and readies to attack the orc.
12 Orc: Rushes forward and throws a javelin at Hen Net, which bounces off the magic-user's invisible forcefield.
13 Hellakin: Disappears into a room and sneaks back, attempting to hide from the orc.
11 Hen Net: Charges with his ranseur, but the orc deflects its blade.
03 Asa Amir: Rushes forward, clanking in her banded mail.

Post Combat Analysis: That was a nice shot! Hellakin rolled a 19 on the die which barely hit the orc considering range, cover and melee penalties. He couldn't back up the crit, but even so, he did max damage. Hasta la vista, orc. So far Hellakin's doing pretty well, though constantly having to pluck his dagger out of orc eyes to retrieve them is starting to become a bit of a pain.

Round 51:
Random Encounter (2): None.
ICN 1: Hen Net changes places with his servant.
ICN 2: Hellakin plucks his dagger out of the dead orc's eye and moves up to the door.
ICN 3-4: Take position around the door.

Round 58:
22 Hellakin: Successfully picks the lock.
16 Sister Soldier: Moves slowly toward the goblin.
06 Goblin Rogue: Loads its crossbow and lets loose with another bolt, lodging it with a fountain of blood in Hen Net's chest (6 hp damage).
05 Hen Net: Coughs blood and tries again to summon an icy wind, but is in too much pain to concentrate.
02 Asa Amir: Rushes forward and clubs the creature across the head (6 hp damage).

Post Combat Analysis: Again I got to test out CMB with a wolf, who succeeded in its trip attempt this time, but with two medium creatures the CMB rules for trip are pretty much identical to 3.5. I won't be able to give a proper test of the CMB rules until the party starts running into large creatures with improved grab, I reckon. Sister Soldier had to one-up Hellakin with that shot from her spear against the charging rat.

Round 62:
Random Encounter (2): None.
ICN1: Hen Net holds his position.
ICN2: Hellakin returns to the door and prepares to open it.
ICN3: Asa Amir moves back to take up a position outside the door.
ICN4: Sister Soldier returns her hammer to her belt loop, picks up her spear, and steps over the dead goblin.

Round 71:
Random Encounter (2): None.
ICN1-2: Hellakin opens the door, discovering the antechamber of the petty warlord! He is a hobgoblin fighter (level 2 this time) and is supported by a goblin wizard (level 1).

Round 72:
18 Goblin Wizard: Fires off a magic missile, hitting Sister Soldier for 3 hp (sister now at 10 hp).
17 Asa Amir: Slides over and converts protection from evil to cure light wounds on sister soldier (heals 5 hp; Sister now at 15 hp).
14 Hen Net: Tells Sister Soldier her fortune (diviner's fortune, +2) before moving forward to threaten the hobgoblin with his ranseur.
10 Hobgoblin Fighter: Steps out of the ranseur's range, retrieves a potion from his belt, and drinks an invigorating liquor before smashing its ceramic bottle against his forehead (potion of bull's strength).
05 Hellakin: Slips past the currently unarmed hobgoblin to threaten the wizard with his shortsword.
05 Sister Soldier: Moves in and chops at the hobgoblin, but misses despite Hen Net's advice.

Round 75:
18 Goblin Wizard: Reads another spell from his scroll, successfully casting defensively, and hitting sister for 2 more damage (Sister now at 11 hp).
17 Asa Amir: Slides over and blesses Sister (inspiring word +2)
14 Hen Net: Tries to summon a freezing wind but falis.
10 Hobgoblin Fighter: Tries to pick up his sword, drawing an attack from Sister Soldier that cleaves through his shoulder (10 hp damage; Hobgoblin Fighter at 5). The sudden pain causes the fighter to drop his sword again and retrieve another potion.
05 Sister Soldier: Barely misses her follow-up attack on the hobgoblin.

Round 76:
18 Goblin Wizard: Reads a third spell from his scroll, nailing Sister for 5 hp damage (sister now at 6 hp).
17 Asa Amir: Slams the wizard, breaking its jaw (6 hp damage).
14 Hen Net: Tries to summon another freezing wind. Meanwhile, the unseen servant feeds Sister the last potion, healing her 9 (Sister now at 15 hp).
10 Hobgoblin Fighter: Drinks his potion (heals 2 hp, now at 7) and retrieves a third, but Sister fails to take advantage of the momentary lapse in his defenses.
05 Sister Soldier: Misses.

Round 77:
18 Goblin Wizard: Tries to retrive a healing potion but is clubbed by Asa for his trouble (6 hp damage; Wizard at -3 hp).
17 Asa Amir: Freed, moves over to flank the fighter.
14 Hen Net: Deducing what the goblin was trying to do, Hen Net orders his unseen servant to grab the potion the wizard tried to drink. Hen Net then tries to distract the hobgoblin (aid another) but fails.
10 Hobgoblin Fighter: Drinks his last potion (heals 8 hp, now at 15), and picks up his sword, drawing AO's from all three opponents, none of whom hit.
05 Sister Soldier: Moves in to corner the blue-nose and cleaves through his shield with another overhand chop (12 hp damage).

Post Combat Analysis: It's a good thing Hen Net got that hobgoblin with the ray of frost, because this encounter could have turned ugly quickly. Those cantrips as supernatural abilities seem to be helping. Asa has been using both stablize and light, while Hen Net is constantly using ray of frost as his ranged attack and detect magic to identify looted potions.

Backward Combatibility: This was potentially a backward compatibility nightmare of an encounter, since I had a second-level fighter and a wizard as enemies. Looking up the second-level fighter, though, I discovered it was pretty much identical to the 3.5 one...two bonus feats and nothing else really special. It's not until 3rd level that it gains armor training and not until fifth that it gains weapon training. The wizard, meanwhile, is more "different" than 3.5. First off, he has two more hit points, which wasn't really a factor in the combat. Also, his skill set is totally different. But I was able to convert that pretty much on the fly, using spellcraft instead of concentration for casting defensively, and then holding the unspent concnetration ranks in "reserve" for perception or some other skill if the wizard needed it. The major difference was that the wizard had that generalist wizard mage hand special ability. He could have been attacking with a dagger at +3 to hit and +3 damage (from intelligence bonus), but I think magic missile was probably a better option, anyway, since it auto-hits. Finally, he should have had a bonded item that would let him cast another spell, but I forgot about that.

Round 82:
Random Encounter (3): None.
ICN1-4: Hen Net stands and picks up his ranseur. Asa moves into the room and guards the door. Sister loots the wizard of his remaining scroll. Hellakin stands and picks up his sword.

REST
The group attemtps to rest and succeeds (no encounters). During his watch, Hen Net is able to identify the goblin's potion as cure light wounds, Sister's unidentified potion as bull's strength, and the two unidentified potions that Asa's been carrying as bull's strength and cure light wounds. They distribute the potions as follows: one each to Hellakin and Sister Soldier. Sister carries one potion of cure light wounds, and so does Asa Amir. Overnight, everyone heals 1 hp so Hen Net has 3 hp, Hellakin has 3 hp, Asa Amir has 8 hp, and Sister Soldier has 16 hp. Hen Net successfully fights off the symptoms of his Filth Fever. Before continuing their quest, Asa Amir channels positive energy twice, bringing everyone to full (9 hp healing). They find that the one of the two doors in this chamber opposite the one they came in from is locked, so Hellakin takes twenty picking it while Asa casts light on her holy symbol and on Hen Net's spear. Hellakin puts away his tools, takes his dagger, and opens the door to reveal a throne room guarded by two hobgoblins...

Round 88:
Random Encounter (4): None.
25 Orc: bleeds (now at -6 hp).
24 Hen Net: Blows a cold wind, but it has no effect.
22 Hellakin: Comes out of his hiding place to throw a dagger at the hobgoblin, but misses.
17 Hobgoblins: Bleeds (now at -8) and misses.
06 Sister Soldier: Steps into flanking and cuts the last hobgoblin down (10 hp damage; hobgoblin at -5 hp).
04 Asa Amir: Loots the hobgoblin of 100 gp.

END OF COMBAT

Post Combat Analysis: This was the first time Hellakin used his two-weapon fighting; he's really not good enough in melee yet to use it consistently (that will change, hopefully, when he gains weapon finesse). It would have been pretty neat if he could have killed both hobgoblins with sneak attacks in the first round but, alas, that was not to be. I should start thinking about a close-combat weapon for Hen Net. When opponents crowd him he can't provide flanking bonuses with his ranseur. He probably should have taken spiked chain instead of ranseur familiarity. But really, every human should take spiked chain. They should probably just change the human "gain familiarity in any one weapon" special ability to "Familiar with any weapon with the words 'spiked' and 'chain' in the title". Finally, I much prefer this version of the identify rules to the Alpha 1 release. You could never identify potions in Alpha 1 because it took too long. In these rules it only takes three rounds for the detect magic to fire up to full strength.

Round 89:
Random Encounter (2): None.
ICN1 Hen Net takes a position outside the chamber's second door and summons an unseen servant. The servant pulls a torch and flint & steel from Sister Soldier's pack.
ICN2 Hellakin moves over and retrieves his dagger.
ICN3 Asa Amir takes a position outside the door.
ICN4 Sister Soldier takes a position outside the door.

Round 91:
Random Encounter (3): None.
ICN1-4 Everyone moves to take up positions around the door while the unseen servant returns the flint & steel to Sister's pack.

Round 92:
Random Encounter (3): None.
ICN1-4 The unseen servant pulls a potion of cure light wounds from Asa's pack while Hellakin discovers the door is locked. He drops his dagger and pulls his tools. Asa Amir channels energy for the third time today, healing herself, Hellakin and Sister one hit point each (they are at 13, 7 and 14 hp, respectively).

Round 93:
Random Encounter (3): None
ICN1 Hellakin drops his tools, picks up his dagger, and opens the door, revealing a chamber that seems to have been hit by an earthquake. Its flagstones buckle unevenly across the floor, and the force of some ancient tremor has shifted the center of the room south. Despite the unsafe nature of the room, a hobgoblin has made it his home.

Post Combat Analysis: Well, Hellakin's nasty when he gets the drop on an opponent, but he's also in a world of hurt when the opponent gets the drop on him. Hellakin's flat-footed AC stinks, and even with a d8 hit die he doesn't have much staying power. That will improve when he gets uncanny dodge, but even so, improved initiative might be a worthwhile investment for this feat-starved rogue.

Round 95:
Random Encounter (2): Hobgoblin
Another hobgoblin, drawn to the noise of combat, challenges the party from around a nearby corner.

Post Combat Analysis: I've been cheating hobgoblins out of a hit point, treating them as 5 hp creatures instead of 6 hp ones. That would have had an effect in this encounter, since Asa would have healed the hobgoblin to 0 hp and it could have gotten back up and attacked the party. Effectively using channeling for healing is a pain in the butt. Selective turning is definitely a "must have" feat for a cleric, and in these rules charisma seems to be almost as important as wisdom. Even so, I think selective turning can be saved for third level, when that extra d6 of healing kicks in, because a single die of healing isn't all that game-changing. Asa seems mostly to roll ones and twos, anyway.

Round 96:
Random Encounter (2): None
ICN1-4 Despite the lack of structural integrity to this room, the group decides to move through it to a door they noticed on its opposite end.

Round 97:
Random Encounter (2): None
ICN1-4 Hellakin opens the door, discovering the quest room! Water leakes from the ceiling over buckling flagstones, while a goblin wizard advises a hobgoblin fighter (level 2) how to shore-up the structure. Unfortunately, both wizard and fighter heard the paty coming and are ready for combat!

Round 99: <---Photo Link
26 Hobgoblin Fighter: Tries to cut down the halfling before he can kill the wizard, but misses.
18 Hen Net: Rushes in and gouges the fighter in the shoulder (6 hp damage).
18 Sister Soldier: Moves to a tactically advantageous position, but still misses the fighter.
12 Asa Amir: Moves protectively in front of Hen Net and misses the fighter.
04 Hellakin: Seeing he has a flank, tries to stab the Fighter but the blue-nose easily deflects his shortsword.
03 Goblin Wizard: Draws a scroll and hits the hated dwarf with another dart of magical force (4 hp damage; Sister now at 11 hp).

Post Combat Analysis: I gave the wizard ranks in sense motive just because he had extra skills. Even so, Hellakin rolled high and the wizard rolled low so the feint worked. In general, wizards have such a low BAB that they stink against feint and probably should invest in sense motive to prevent them from being completely neutralized by rogues tumbling through the front line to threaten them. Again, the wizard would have had that mage hand special ability, and should have had an extra spell from a bonded object, so he didn't need to go straight to his scroll. There would have been no net effect on the combat, however, and it just would have saved one magic missile scroll as treasure. So it actually worked to the party's disadvantage that I forgot about the bonded object.

Post Combat Analysis: Diviniation special ability for the win! The synergy between that special ability and improved initiative is really starting to pay off for Hen Net.

Round 105:
Random Encounter (2): None.
ICN1-4 Hellakin takes the 140 gp from the chest while the rest of the team sets the explosive charges. They now have three minutes and twenty seconds to get out of the dungeon before the explosives blow!

Round 107-110:
Random Encounter (3): None.
ICN1-4 It only takes them four rounds to reach the exit. They catch their breath outside and KABOOM! The explosives go off and the dungeon floods.

END OF QUEST
PRIMARY MISSION SUCCESS: They fought their way to the room under the lake and blew it open. They receive an 800 gold piece reward.
SECONDARY MISSION SUCCESS: They killed the petty warlord. They receive a 200 gold piece bounty. Additionally, they accrued 1,190 gp in loot, 2 potions of Bull's Strength, 6 potions of cure light wounds, and 3 scrolls of magic missile.

Experience Points: The party defeated 7,870 experience points worth of creatures, earning each character 1,967 experience, with 1 experience point left over. I'm giving the remaining experience point to Hellakin, since he has the least xp. Their current xp totals are now Asa Amir=3,979, Hen Net=3,979, Sister Soldier=3,569, Hellakin=1,968. On the medium experience track, Hellakin is still 32 xp short of second level, while Sister Soldier gains second level. On the fast track, Asa, Hen Net, and Sister would all be third level, with Hellakin being second level.

Comparison: In 3.5, each character would have received 1,588 experience points. That would put Asa Amir and Hen Net at third level with 3,414 xp each. Sister Soldier would also be third level with 3,089 xp, and Hellakin would be second level with 1,588 xp. The "fast" Pathfinder RPG experience track so far matches the levels that would have been achieved in 3.5 edition.

Now that the characters are APL 1.75, they finally shift up to the APL 2 encounter chart!

I'm assuming that the medium track will be the "default" for these rules, so I will be using it to determine level, but I'll continue to track the differences between the three tracks.

I've been assuming that the fast XP track is the "default", since it's the one that conforms to the 13 encounters/level heuristic that 3.5 uses. YMMV.

I hope you're right! And there's certainly logic to your theory...playing the older adventure paths with the medium or slow progression would require extra "side-quests" thrown in to keep up with the APL.

Heh heh yeah, I named the characters after their figures for simplicity's sake, and I couldn't remember the name of that bowman figure but I knew it was an old Ral Partha fig. Hen Net = Hennet, a WotC 3rd Edition miniature, Temp Lar = Human Templar, a WotC chainmail figure, and Asa Amir = Aasamir Cleric, also a WotC chainmail mini. Sister's figure is the chainmail "Dwarven Fighter", and I couldn't come up with an adequate name from that one =(

Returning to the city, the PC's need a day of rest to be healed to max hit points, and then another day of rest in order for Asa Amir to re-learn her spells. It costs 10 gp per day per level for characters to live in the city, so two days will cost all three PC's 60 gold pieces. That reduces their haul to 334.75 gold pieces each. Sister Soldier and Asa Amir sell their scale mail and buy banded mail. Ralph Arta sells his thieves' tools and leather armor, replacing them with masterwork thieves' tools and masterwork studded leather armor, respectively. Because no silk ropes are available for sale, Ralph is forced to sell his grappling hook and dump a few arrows to keep his encumbrance down. Hen Net spends his money on scrolls...scrolls of Enlarge Person, Mage Armor, Unseen Servant, Ray of Enfeeblement, Magic Missile, Burning Hands and Scorching Ray. Hen Net copies Burning Hands into his spellbook, and attempts to copy Unseen Servant, but fails.

Quest -- Exploration: The party is hired to map a cavern. Their job is done once there aren't any more unopened doors or unexplored corridors left.
Side Quest -- Minor Monster: A terrible monster is roaming the countryside by night. By day it retreats to its lair; the party is hired to find it and kill it. The creature is a Ghast.
As the characters reach the bottom of the stairs, a 10' wide dark and empty corridor yawns eastward before them. 25' ahead the corridor intersects with another 10' wide hallway travelling north and south.
Round 1:
Random Encounter (1): None
ICN1 Ralph Arta: Pass
ICN2 Hen Net: Casts mage armor on himself from a scroll.
ICN3 Asa Amir: Casts light on Ralph Arta and then moves 20' forward.
ICN4 Sister Soldier: Moves forward to the edge of the intersection, now seeing that the eastward corridor dead-ends 50' ahead, just on the edge of Sister's darkvision. She looks north and south, noting mirror images -- to the south the corridor bends east after 45', and to the north the corridor does the same. On the northernmost and southernmost walls of both corridors are wooden doors. Two torches sputter on the walls of the southern corridor, and trash is heaped up against the southern door. Preferring not to get her boots dirty, Sister soldier moves 10' into the corridor to the north.

Round 2:
Random Encounter (1): Goblin
Just as sister soldier moves toward the northern door, a goblin pokes its head around the corner of the northern bend. He's a sneaky little bugger who surprises everyone except Hen Net, who is always looking into the future and was expecting him.

Round 3:
21 Hen Net: Peers into the murky darkness of the northern corridor, but can only see 10' into shadows lit by a wall torch behind him. Rather than expose himself to the unseen goblin, he touches his amulet and summons a ghostly presence (unseen servant from bonded object) that draws a torch, flint and steel from Hen Net's pack.
15 Ralph Arta: Races forward past Hen Net but, even with Asa Amir's light spell, he can't see the distant goblin (the goblin is at 45' distance, just past the light spell's illumination). Ralph draws an arrow and prepares to attack any goblin that steps into the light.
10 Goblin: Dancing in victory and cackling with glee, the goblin draws another javelin and chucks it at the still-flat-footed dwarf, again piercing Sister's defenses (1 hp damage).
06 Asa Amir: Steps up behind Sister Soldier and casts light on her holy symbol, finally revealing the goblin in the shadowy darkness ahead.
05 Finally spotting the creature, Ralph Arta lets loose his barb, but misses badly.
05 Sister Soldier: Sister Soldier spits blood and charges the little bugger, but the goblin skips out of the way of her deadly axe. Sister does see, now, that the corridor bending to the east travels 40' before bending south. On the eastern wall, where the corridor bends, is another door, this one stone.

Round 4:
Random Encounter (4): None.
21 Hen Net: Finally seeing the goblin, Hen Net rushes forward and tries to freeze the creature with a ray of frost, but loses the ugly thing at the last second in the gloom (fails 20% miss chance). Meanwhile, a torch flares to life behind Hen Net (unseen servant uses full round action to light torch).
10 Goblin: Suddenly terrified of the awful dwarf the goblin steps back, draws another javelin, and lets it fly, this time at Hen Net. The javelin penetrates Hen Net's sorcerous defenses (3 hp damage).
06 Asa Amir: Rushes up next to the goblin, cornering it, and clearly illuminating it with the silver light of Desna.
05 Ralph Arta rushes forward and fires again. Despite being at point blank range, the overly-excited rogue misses.
05 Sister Soldier: Steps foward and finally cuts the creature down (13 hp damage).

END OF COMBAT

Post Combat Analysi: It was fun seeing that goblin dominate the darkness. No real difference with 3.5e here.
Backward Combatibility: A bit of an issue with the stealth skill and trying to figure out whether the goblin actually had ranks. But nothing that ground the game to a halt.

Round 5:
Random Encounter (2): None.
ICN1 Ralph Arta: Moves foward and prepares to open the door when everyon else is ready.
ICN2 Hen Net: Summons the dancing torch to his side, and the flint and steel find their way back into Hen Net's pack.
ICN3 Asa Amir: Whispers an inspiring gospel of Desna to Ralph Arta, who is suddenly filled with confidence (inspiring word).
ICN4 Sister Soldier: Puts the dying goblin out of its misery (coup de grace).

Round 7:
Random Encounter (3): None
ICN1 Ralph Arta: Distracted by Asa Amir's constant preaching, he fails to notice the trap, and triggers a fusillade of darts as he opens the door. The darts shoot out of the ceiling above Asa and Sister, bouncing off the dwarf's helm but lodging painfully in Asa's shoulder (3 hp damage). Ralph utters an apology and peers into the room, where he is assaulted by undomfortable heat. The chamber is 30 by 40 feet, with a fifteen-foot wide chasm of molten lava cutting right through the center. At the opposite side of the lava are several barrels and what appears to be a treasure chest. But Ralph decides the lava is too dangerous a barrier to risk for mere gold and shuts the door.
ICN2 Hen Net: Moves to the edge of the southern bend, revealing more corridor stretching south, with a T-section to the east after 40', and then bending to the east after another 45'.
ICN3 Asa Amir: Moves between Hen Net and Sister Soldier and channels more positive energy (Asa, Hen, and Sister heal 3, so everyone is now back to full).
ICN4 Sister Soldier: Grumbles something to Ralph before following Hen Net to the east.

POST TRAP ANALYSIS: Wow, search is now under the perceptions kill and is wisdom-based. Rogues can no longer dump wisdom. This trap was poorly concealed (DC 15 search), but even with inspiring word my lousy 8 wisdom rogue couldn't find it. On the one hand, it's a big advantage that rogues can now make search checks as reactionary rolls, as is being able to do so at a 20' range. But Hen Net is at a big disadvantage thanks to his low wisdom and will likely never be very good at his job. Hen Net will have to prioritize buying eyes of the eagle. Now that I'm fully examining the Perception skill, there are a few things that need to be defined...namely torchlight and moonlight. I'm assuming torchlight is considered bright light, and moonlight shadowy darkness, but I don't see that ever clarified anywhere. Also, elves are still given secret door sense, but based on the reading of the Perception skill, every other creature has it now as well.

Round 8:
Random Encounter (3): None
ICN1 Ralph Arta: Hurries east and reaches to open the door.
ICN2 Hen Net: Casts a charm on Ralph Arta, parting the veil of time and offering the thief a glimpse of the future (diviner's fortune). Meanwhile, the unseen servant catches up with Hen Net.
ICN3 Asa Amir: Moves up carefully behind Ralph Arta
ICN4 Sister Soldier: Hurries to catch up to the party.

Round 15:
Random Encounter (2): None
ICN1-4: Everyone moves down and takes up position behind the next door.

Round 16:
Random Encounter (2): Hobgoblin. Drawn by the smell of freshly dead rat, it comes around the corner behind the party and utters a roar of challenge! Ralph Arta successfully hides, from it however, and surprises it...

BEGIN COMBAT

Surprise Round:
Ralph Arta: Misses with his bow.

Round 17:
19 Hen Net (Note: I'd been forgetting Hen Net's improved initiative to this point): Rushes up and summons a cold wind (ray of frost for 2 damage).
18 Asa Amir: Runs up to guard Hen Net.
12 Ralph Arta: Races to the corner and misses with his bow despite the point-blank range.
12 Sister Soldier: Races up to challenge the hobgoblin in melee.
07 Hobgoblin: Stabs at Ralph Arta around the corner but the wiley thief ducks out of the way.

Round 18:
Random Encounter (4): None
19 Hen Net: Continues to command the chilling wind, turning the hobgoblin's lips the same shade of blue as his nose (ray of frost for 3 damage).
18 Asa Amir: Moves behind the hobgoblin (using mobility) and clubs him over the head, knocking him out (6 damage).
12 Ralph Arta: Moves back down to the door.
12 Sister Soldier: Follows behind Ralph Arta.

END OF COMBAT

POST COMBAT ANALYSIS: Again, nothing really stands out here. Mobility is proving to be much more useful than in 3.5. I originally bought it so that Asa Amir could reach and stabilize dying characters, but it's proving more useful to set up flanking.

Round 20:
Random Encounter (2): None
ICN1 Hen Net: Waits for Ralph.
ICN2 Ralph Arta: Opens the door to reveal a large 30x40 foot chamber, at the far end of which is a throne flanked by a chest and floor torch. The owner of the thrown and chest is mysteriously absent, unless he has fallen victim to the curse of undeath and is one of the two zombies moaning and threatening the PC's on the other side of the door!

Round 22:
Random Encounter (4): Lizardfolk. A Lizardman hunter lurking in the uexplored area to the south decides to take advantage of the PC's distraction and rushes to attack from their flank!
23 Lizardfolk: Turns the corner and rushes to challenge to Ralph Arta in melee.
22 Ralph Arta: Steps back to give himself room, draws, and fires, but his slight panic spoils his aim.
14 Hen Net: Steps back and casts an augury that revails a chink in the lizardman's scales (true strike).
11 Sister Soldier: Overhand chops the damaged zombie, splitting it like a rotting log (13 hp damage).
10 Asa Amir: Swings her kukri at the remaining walking dead, but dulls her blade on the corner of the stone wall instead.
04: Zombie: Sister Soldier ducks out of the way of the zombie's wild club.

POST COMBAT ANALYSIS: Mixed groups of living and undead are more dangerous than they used to be. Before the Lizardman showed up, Asa Amir was getting ready to channel positive energy to heal Sister Soldier and damage the zombies. But once the Lizardman showed up she didn't want to do that anymore from fear of healing the Lizardman. Also, Asa Amir was forced to perform a coup de grace on the Lizardman in order to prevent it from getting back up during the subsequent non-combat round. Depending on your own personal feelings or that of your DM, this may be considered an "evil act", especially since a Lizardman is technically neutral. Coup de grace issues with alignment are going to be front and center with these new rules, since they are tactically important with the way channeling positive energy works.

Round 36:
Raundom Encounter (5): None
ICN1 Hen Net: Pass
ICN2 Ralph Arta: Finally succeeds in picking the lock.
ICN3 Asa Amir: Moves up and pops opne the chest, only to be disappointed to discover that the chest is empty.
ICN4 Sister Soldier: Takes up a position outside the room's second, unopened door.

Round 37:
Random Encounter (5): None
ICN1 Hen Net: Takes up a position outside the door.
ICN2 Ralph Arta: Opens the door to reveal a narrow (5' wide) corridor travelling north into the darkness.
ICN3 Asa Amir: Pass
ICN4 Sister Soldier: Moves forward far enough to deduce that the corridor dead-ends after 60'. She then turns around and moves back toward the room's exit.

Round 38:
Random Encounter (5): None
ICN1-4 Move back out into the southern corridor and discover the T-junction to the east ends in a dead-end.

Round 39:
Random Encounter (6): None
ICN1-4 Continue south and around the corner to the east to discover a long, partially flooded corridor that narrows (5' wide) before bending south. On the other side of a shallow pool of water is a wooden door set into the corridor's southern wall.

Round 39:
Random Encounter (6): None
ICN1-4 Move through the pool of water and take up positions outside the door.

Round 40:
Random Encounter (7): None
ICN1 Hen Net: Pass
ICN2 Ralph Arta: Opens the door to reveal a small room through which runs a deep chasm (10' wide). Guarding the bridge across the chasm is a single hobgoblin fighter.

BEGIN COMBAT

24 Hen Net: Throws a hex on the hobgoblin, attempting to drain his stength, but the hobgoblin resists the sorcery (ray of enfeeblement misses).
20 Asa Amir: Still caught in the flood of water, slogs through the pool to cacth up with her companions, blessinng them as she does so (bless).
20 Sister Soldier: Also slogs through the bog, pushing her way in front of Ralph and protecting him from the hobgoblin.
18 Hobgoblin Fighter: Stabs at Sister, his sword deflected by her buckler.
17 Ralph Arta: Steps back and fires an arrow, missing in his panic.

Round 42:
Random Encounter (4): None
24 Hen Net: Tries to summon another cold wind but fails.
20 Sister Soldier: Delays.
18 Hobgoblin Fighter: Steps back against the wall, draws another potion, and drinks it (3 hp healed).
17 Sister Soldier: Comes out of delay and slams the goblin with her axe, felling it (4 hp damage).
17 Ralph Arta: Pass
16 Asa Amir: Leaves the looting of the creature to her compatriots, instead getting a head start on exploring the narrow corridor.

END OF COMBAT

POST COMBAT ANALYSIS: The characters managed to hit the hobgoblin early, forcing it into a downward spiral of trying to heal itself instead of attacking. Nothing to do with edition.

BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY: Since the hobgoblin fighter was only level 1, there were no real issues with backward compatibility. At higher levels I would have to give the hobgoblin extra abilities. Also, I've been assuming throughout that monster races have no changes. PC races are now somewhat more powerful, relative to the monsters, since they've all got an extra +2 to their stats and the monsters don't. If that changes in future versions of the Pathfinder RPG, backward compatibility is going to be a lot more difficult. It already takes some doing to remember potions of bull's strength, rays of enfeeblement, and rage changes to stats. Having to factor in an additional racial change will be a pain in the butt.

Round 47:
20 Hen Net: Calls out a warning and rushes back to help the dwarf.
18 Bugbear: Smashes Sister Soldier upside the head with his morningstar (8 hp damage).
16 Asa Amir: Also rushes back in an attempt to help Sister.
08 Sister Soldier: Shocked by the strength of the goblin's blow, Sister swings ineffectually with her axe while giving ground.
07 Ralph Arta: Rushes back and draws an arrow.

Round 49:
Random Encounter (4): Two opportunistic orcs, drawn by the sound of battle, appear around a blind corner.
21 Orcs: The orcs rush forward toward Ralph Arta, tossing javelins that the rogue barely avoids.
20 Hen Net: This time succeeds in calling the ice spirits, and begins to chill the bugbear's armor (ray of frost, 3 hp damage).
18 Bugbear: Finds another opening in Sister's defenses, cracking several ribs with his next blow (9 hp damage).
16 Asa Amir: Out of healing spells and fearing for the party's flank, retreats around the corner and readies to face down the oncoming orcs.
08 Takes a step back, drops her axe behind her, draws a potion, and drinks the elixer (cure light wounds heals 6 hp).
07 Ralph Arta: Ignores the imminent threat of the onrushing orcs and fires again at the bugbear, but misses.

Round 50:
22 Asa Amir: Tries to interrupt the charging orc with her mace, but the beast easily deflects the blow.
21 Orcs: The first orc slashes around the corner, penetrating Hen Net's arcane defenses and dropping the wizard in a pool of his own blood (11 hp damage; Hen Net now at -3). The second orc throws another javelin but misses.
20 Hen Net: Bleeds (now at -4 hp).
18 Bugbear: Presses the attack but his wild swing misses Sister.
08 Sister Soldier: Steps back, picks up her axe, and readies an attack against the bugbear if it advances again.
07 Ralph Arta: Fires another arrow at the bugbear, this time hitting and felling the beast (6 hp damage, bugbear now at -1). He then retrieves a potion from his pack.

Round 55:
Random Encounter (5): None.
22 Asa Amir: Swings again at the orc, but her mace is deflected by the heavy falchion.
21 Orcs: The counter-attacks and misses. The second orc bleeds (now at -3 hp).
18 Bugbear: Bleeds (now at -6 hp).
08 Sister Soldier: Drinks her last potion (heals 8 hp) and steps into the corridor to challenge the last orc.
07 Ralph Arta: But Ralph Arta's sharp-shooting drops the last orc before Sister can (5 hp damage, orc now at -4 hp).

END OF COMBAT

POST COMBAT ANALYSIS: Wow, it's a pain in the butt to keep track of downed enemies. You have to do it now because you never know when the PC's are going to channel positive energy, but if you have a lot of low-level enemies that's a lot of rolls for stabilization and a lot of tracking dying creatures. I'm not sure how I feel about that. This battle could have gone south very easily because of the orcs. They are very dangerous for a CR 1/2 creature because they can take a typical first level character down in a single blow, and can kill one with a crit. But that's the way they are in 3.5, so no real change here unless, again, they get a further +2 to strength in future releases, making them even more dangerous.

Surprise Round:
21 Ghast: Sickened by the creature's horrific stench, Ralph Arta can barely react as the ghast steps in front of him and bites him on the shoulder! Ralph Arta suddenly can't breath as paralysis quickly spreads through his body (Ralph is sickened for 80 rounds, 10 hp of damage staggers Ralph; Ralph is paralyzed for 5 rounds).

Round 60:
21 Ghast: Performs a coup de grace on Ralph, killing him.
12 Asa Amir: Encourages Sister Soldier with the gospel of Desna (insipiring word +2).
12 Hen Net: The scroll burns in his hand as he releases the power within, striking the ghast with a dart of force (5 hp damage from magic missile).
08 Sister Soldier: Charges the ghast, also finding herself sickened by the stench, and misses it with her axe.

Round 62:
21 Ghast: Tries to bite the dwarf again, but gets a mouthful of armor for its trouble. One claw does scratch sister's cheek, but the fighter fights off the paralyzing effect (2 hp damage).
12 Asa Amir: Channels positive energy for the last time, fully healing Sister and Hen Net, but the ghast again resists the energy (3 hp reduced by turn resistance).
12 Hen Net: Draws a scroll and reads the words of power, causing the earth beneath the ghast to shift and rock as if it were inviting it back to the grave. The ghast falls (grease, ghast is prone).
08 Sister Soldier: Raises her axe over her head and lands a mighty chop on the ghast (7 hp damage).

Round 63:
21 Ghast: Claws and bites at Sister Soldier from the ground but the dwarven lass skips out of its way.
12 Asa Amir: Delays
12 Hen Net: Jabs ineffectually with his ranseur and then backs off ten feet. Grease expires.
11 Asa Amir: Steps forward five feet, teleports behind the prone ghast, is sickened by its stench, but lands a solid blow on its crown (6 hp damage).
08 Sister Soldier: Takes another two-handed chop at the beast, successfully splattering its head (10 hp damage).

POST COMBAT ANALYSIS: This was a dangerous creature, probably too dangerous for a first-level party. They got lucky to destroy it with only one death in the party. Grease was essential to that success, and it only dropped due to a really bad roll on its saving throw. Ralph Arta didn't have much of a chance...he was a victim to a lot of poor rolls in a row. Failing to spot the creature, failing to save against paralysis...ironically, had Ralph been dropped to negatives he probably would have survived, because the creature would have left him to go kill someone else. But since he was at 0, still standing, and paralyzed, he was blocking the corridor. The ghast had no real choice other than coup de grace him to get him out of the way.

BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY: I chose the ghast as the minor monster (it has to be a CR 2 higher than the party APL) because I wanted to see how the new turning rules would work against a tough monster. I knew that a first level cleric wouldn't have much of a chance to turn a ghast in 3.5, and so turning would be pretty worthless, so I wanted to see if it was more effective here. But I'd forgotten that ghasts had turn resistance. With positive energy resistance of 5, Asa would have to roll a 6 to damage the ghast. So turning ended up being worthless as an offensive option. Defensively, it was still worthwhile. Overall, the new version of turning remains better than the 3.5 version against typical opponents (since it can now be used to heal), and worse against undead (since it's far less likely to make undead flee). It will be interesting to see if this shifts as Asa gains levels and the turning damage increases.

Round 67:
Random Encounter (3): None
ICN1: Hen Net opens the door, revealing a small dark chamber that is the hovel of a hobgoblin fighter.

BEGIN COMBAT

Round 68:
20 Hen Net: Reads the scroll aloud, uttering a curse that drains the hobgoblin's strenght (ray of enfeeblement for a 6 strength penalty).
17 Hobgoblin Fighter: Drinks a revitalizing elixer to counter the curse (bull's strength potion).
08 Asa Amir: Retrieves a vial of acid from her pack and throws it at the blue-nose, but misses badly.
03 Sister Soldier: Races up and swings at the goblin, but fails to penetrate its armor.

Round 72:
Random Encounter (5): None
17 Hobgoblin Fighter: Feeling the life force ebbing, tries to retrieve another potion, but Sister takes advantage of the distraction and cuts him down (8 hp damage).
16 Hen Net: Steps forward and steals 100 gold pieces from the dying goblin.
09 Asa Amir: Moves to the door and shuts it.
03 Sister Soldier: Picks up the potion the goblin tried to drink and drinks it herself (heals 5 hp, now at 16 hp).

END OF COMBAT

POST COMBAT ANALYSIS: Not really relevant to this combat more than any other, but I'm reminded how much better toughness is in this versoin of the rules than in 3.5. You're basically getting two 3.5 feats for the price of one -- toughness and improved toughness. Sister's improved hit points have been a real asset to the party, and are largely responsible for the party's success in this difficult quest. She's basically been the equivelant of a second-level fighter.

REST PERIOD
The three remaining characters attempt to rest. Each uses one day's rations and a use of the waterskins. Sister Soldier attempts to cover their tracks (survival) but fails. None the less, their rest is undisturbed. They recover their spells, become unsickened, and each heal 1 hp. Hen Net and Sister Soldier are at full health; Asa Amir is at 8 hp. They line up outside th door and open it.

BEGIN COMBAT
Round 3:
14 Hen Net: Can't really see the zombie in the darkness so moves up and touches Sister Soldier with diviner's touch.
13 Sister Soldier: Rushes up and attacks the zombie around the corner, landing a deadly blow (13 hp).
09 Asa Amir: Rushes up to bring her light forward.
05 Zombie: His counter attack is deflected by Sister's buckler.

Round 4:
Random Encounter (4): None.
14 Hen Net: Moves up behind Asa Amir.
13 Sister Soldier: Cuts the zombie down where it stands.
09 Asa Amir: Casts light on Hen Net's amulet and then moves up to see what's around the corner. The corridor stretches straight and narrow into the darkness.

END COMBAT

POST COMBAT ANALYSIS: I've seen enough zombies now not to have to discuss them.

Round 5:
Random Encounter (2):
ICN1 Hen Net: Moves down the corridor far enough to see it widens before continuing into the darkness (10' wide).
ICN2 Asa Amir: Pushes past Hen Net far enough to see that the corridor eventually dead ends. They've finally reached the end of this branch of the dungeon.
ICN3 Sister Soldier: Pass.

Round 6-19:
Random Encounter (2-6):
ICN1-3 Backtrack to the very beginning of the dungeon and then head down the unexplored southern branch.

POST COMBAT ANALYSIS: I'm not sure whether disease damage stacks. Fortunately, I don't need to know right now, because Hen Net made two of his three saving throws and therefore was only infected once. Still, this is something I'll have to look up. Diseases could be very nasty if multiple infections from the same source stack...Hen Net could easily be losing 3d3 in two stats after the incubation period instead of just 1d3. Even without stacking, diseases appear to be more potent in this version of the rules. It will be interesting to see what happens to Hen Net after the incubation period.

Round 31:
Random Encounter (3): A first-level human rogue that had been hunting the rats now tries to sneak up on the party but Sister and Asa both hear him.

BEGIN COMBAT

Round 31:
18 Hen Net: Picks up his Ranseur and stands.
11 Asa Amir: Moves forward to threaten the rogue, discovering an unexplored passage running south and then turning again to the east.
09 Sister Soldier: Moves toward the rogue.
05 Human Rogue: Stabs at Sister Soldier with his rapier but misses.

POST COMBAT ANALYSIS: Feinting is actually easier now that it is versus bab + wisdom modifier *or* versus deception, not both. It used to be very difficult to feint someone who'd built up ranks in sense motive, since you were having to beat the sense motive *plus* the base attack bonus. Now you've got a fifty-fifty chance or thereabouts to feint someone with deception as a class skill. Kind of irrelevant to this combat, but something I noticed.

BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY: I screwed up and should have given the rogue +2 to a single stat. I forgot to to that.

Round 33:
Random Encounter (2): None
ICN1-3 Decide to abandon the door and see if they can find an end to this forsaken dungeon and thereby succeed in their quest. They loot the rogue of 30 gold pieces and a potion of cure light wounds before moving south and then east. In doing so they generate a locked iron door that they know they can't open. Unable to complete the quest, they turn around and go home.

END OF QUEST
PRIMARY MISSION FAILURE: The "exploration" quest requires characters to keep exploring the dungeon until finally all branches dead end. This was impossible due to a locked iron door that the characters couldn't open, and therefore couldn't explore beyond.
SECONDARY MISSION SUCCESS: The characters found and destroyed the ghast, though it took one of their own with it. They are rewarded a 200 gold piece bounty for its death. Additionally, they have accrued 1,110 gold pieces and a single cure light wounds potion as loot. Each character receives 277 gold pieces and 5 silver pieces (including Ralph Arta who still gets his cut despite being dead).

Experience Points: The characters defeated 2,879 xp worth of creatures before Ralph Arta died. So each character received 717 experience points. Then they defeated another 1,605 xp worth of creatures after Ralph Arta died. So of that each character received 535 experience points, for a grand total of 1,252. Combined with the experience from their previous quests (751 xp for Hen Net and Asa Amir, 350 xp for Sister Soldier) their current xp totals are:
Asa Amir=2,003 Hen Net=2,003 Sister Soldier=1,602. On the slow experience point track, none of the characters would yet have advanced to second level. On the medium track, Asa Amir and Hen Net are both barely second level, while Sister Soldier remains at first. On the slow track, none of the characters would have yet reached second level. I'm assuming that the medium track will be the "default" for these rules, so I will be using it to determine level, but I'll continue to track the differences between the three tracks.

Comparison: In 3.5, each character would have received 538 xp before the death of Ralph Arta, and 700 xp after the death of Ralph Arta. Combined with previous experience point awards, Sister Soldier would now be 2nd level with 1,501 xp, while Hen Net and Asa Amir would both be 2nd level with 1,826 xp. So far, the medium experience track is definitely slower than default 3.5 edition, despite the fact that the characters have more total experience than they would have in 3.5.

Playing 3.5 edition Dungeon Magazine adventures with SRD-only, honestly "rolled up" characters, is pretty rough. I know because I've run quite a few of them, I don't allow non-core sources, and my players have suffered many deaths and a few TPK's as a result. If these were adventure paths (Paizo's bread and butter) instead of the one-offs added to a larger campaign, the games would have ground to a halt as a result of character death spiral.

Paizo can no longer use the splat books. NPCs and monsters with class abilities can't be tweaked to the high end of their CR like they used to be. Further, Paizo can't use the monsters in Monster Manual II and III that are over-powered for their CR compared to the SRD monsters. None of that stuff is OGL so it's suddenly off-limits to Paizo. All they're left with are the weak core classes, the DMG prestige classes, and the SRD monsters.

Meanwhile, players can still use all the old crap they've always used. They can still prestige class themselves to high heaven and exalted deeds themselves to invulnerability. The net result would be, if Paizo continued with 3.5 using nothing but the OGL, far less difficult and memorable adventures.

So this "new" rpg is, essentially, Paizo's attempt to re-even the playing field between DMs, players and, most importantly, designers/writers.

One way to think of the up-powered classes is that really they're just up-powered monsters, since so many 3.x style monsters have class levels, especially in Paizo products.

I'm not saying this is good or bad...my initial reaction was similar to yours. But the limited play-testing I've done has (so far) shown that the game is still *almost* as difficult as it's ever been. I can only speak to level 1, though.

Returning to the city, the PC's need a day of rest to be healed to max hit points, and then another day of rest in order for Asa Amir to re-learn her spells. It costs 10 gp per day per level for characters to live in the city, so two days will cost all three PC's 60 gold pieces. Ralph Arta has the 50 gold pieces he took from the orc barbarian, Hen Net pays an additional 3 gold pieces from his savings, and Asa Amir pays 7 gold pieces from her savings. Additionally, the group finds a particularly tough and ugly dwarven lass, Sister Soldier, who is willing to take the place of their slain fighter. They sell Temp Lar's spiked chain and battle axe, donating the proceeds to the Church of Desna in his memory. The PC's redistribute the healing potions they looted from the dead orc, giving both to Sister. As they begin looking for employment, the party looks like this:

Quest -- Capture the Warlord: A new warlord has arisen in a nearby dungeon. The mayor has hired the party to descend into the dungeon and capture the evil warlord.
Side Quest -- Petty Warlord: One of the creatures in the side-quest room is the right hand of a local warlord. Defeating him increases the PC's reward.
The first part of the dungeon is generated – a 10’ wide corridor traveling east for 30’ before bending to the north. An unlocked door is in the northern corridor wall a mere 5’ from the dungeon entrance.
Round 1:
Random Encounter (1): None
ICN1 Ralph Arta: Pass
ICN2 Hen Net: Pass
ICN3 Asa Amir: Casts light on Ralph Arta and moves 10’ beside a door.
ICN4 Sister Soldier: Moves and then opens stone door, generating a large, 30 x 40 foot unfurnished chamber occupied by a single hobgoblin.

BEGIN COMBAT

Round 2:
19 Asa Amir: Casts light on her holy symbol.
12 Hobgoblin: Steps forward and slides his longsword between the scales of Sister’s mail, causing the dwarven lass to gasp and cough blood (9 hit point damage).
11 Ralph Arta: Successfully threads the needle past Sister and pricks the hobgoblin with a barbed arrow (5 hp damage).
11 Sister Soldier: Recovers her wits and, with a guttural roar, beheads the hated goblinoid with a single swing of her axe (13 hp damage).
08 Hen Net: Moves 40’ to the opposite end of the west-east passageway, generating a 10’ wide corridor that travels 30’ north before splitting into a T-Junction east and west. A door is 15’ north on the west wall, and a second door is in the far northern wall that forms the T-Junction. Technically, Hen Net is unaware of many of these details, since Asa Amir’s light spells are behind him, and all he really knows is that a wide passageway yawns northward into the darkness.

END COMBAT

Round 3:
Random Encounter (2): None
ICN1 Ralph Arta: Moves up and takes a position around the corner from the passageway leading north, his light spell revealing the details of that architecthre.
ICN2 Hen Net: Searches the eastern-most corridor wall for a secret door and finds one!
ICN3 Asa Amir: Moves up behind Ralph Arta.
ICN4 Sister Soldier: Kicks the dead hobgoblin and then hurries forward around the corner to protect the party from potential wandering monsters.

Round 8:
Random Encounter (3): None
ICN1 Ralph Arta: Opens the door to reveal a 40 by 30 foot chamber occupied by evil warlord the PC’s have come to capture – an orc cleric – along with his two orc barbarian bodyguards. The orcs heard the party stomping around in the hallway, and are well-prepared for their attack.

BEGIN COMBAT

Round 9:
19 Sister Soldier: Attempts to fell the first orc barbarian with a single over-hand chop and almost succeeds, cleaving through the beast’s shoulder and splattering blood (+3 to hit thanks to inspiring word and diviner’s fortune, 13 hp damage).
17 Hen Net: Steps forward and jabs past Sister to spike the stunned barbarian in the face with his ranseur, dropping the foul creature (4 hp damage with arcane strike).
10 Ralph Arta: Bravely (perhaps foolishly) rushes into the room past the remaining flat-footed barbarian, spins, and attempts to fill him with a barbed quill, but misses.
10 Asa Amir: Casts bless.
07 Orc Cleric 1: Casts protection from good on himself.
03 2 Orc Barbarians 1: Rages, charges the lightly-armored Ralph Arta who is now in the open, and drops the hapless rogue in a single blow (15 hp damage). The other Orc Barbarian bleeds (now at -4 hit points).

Round 12:
17 Hen Net: Stabilizes at -1 hp.
10 Ralph Arta: Bleeds (now at -5 hp).
10 Asa Amir: Rushes around behind the orc barbarian and swings at it with her mace but misses.
09 Sister Soldier: Side-steps into a flanking position and overhand chops the orc, driving it in a bloody mess to the ground (10 hp damage, dying at -1 hp).
07 Orc Cleric 1: Casts cure light wounds and steps next to the orc barbarian with a healing touch (orc barbarian healed 2 hp and back to consciousness).
03 2 Orc Barbarians 1: The prone orc pulls a potion from his belt, drawing attacks of opportunity from both Asa Amir and Sister Soldier. Though the orc dodges the cleric's mace, the dwarf's axe cleaves through his forehead before he can drink the healing brew (10 points of damage to -9). The second orc barbarian continues to bleed (now at -4).

Post-Combat Analysis: This was an extremely tough combat for a new party. Even though the PC's outnumbered the orcs four to three, the orcs had better equiment (better armor and more cure potions). Overhand chop was essential to the PC's success, since it basically matched the damage output of the greataxe-wielding raging barbarians. However, in 3.5, Power Attack would have done exactly the same damage, for an additional -1 to hit. The back-and-forth channeling of positive and negative energy was interesting, and pointed out to me how dangerous evil clerics are to dying PC's. I was reluctant to have Asa Amir channel too much energy, from fear of healing those dangerous orc barbarians back to their feet, but the Dungeon Bash opponent programming had the Orc Cleric much less reluctant about his channeling. It was fortunate for the PC's that the orc cleric rolled a "1" on both channeling attempts, because with decnet rolls he could easily have killed Ralph Arta. The inspiring word and diviner's fortune are excellent buffs that, interestingly, stack, since the inspiring word is an un-named bonus. At the end of the day, had the PC's taken similar feats and used similar tactics and this battle was run using 3.5, the PC's would still have won the battle.
Backward Compatibility: This was less backward-compatible than the previous fights, because the cleric has so many changes in the Pathfinder RPG. I completely forgot about the change in domains, and the cleric shouldn't have had protection from good memorized, subsitituting it for the touch of evil and the touch of chaos special abilities. Sickening Sister on the last round with touch of evil, instead of channeling negative energy, would have been nasty but, again, would have had no net effect on the combat, since the -2 to hit from being sickened would have been identical to the -2 to hit from protection from good and the -2 to damage would still have been enough to knock the cleric to -1.

END OF QUEST
PRIMARY MISSION SUCCESS: The “Capture the Warlord” Quest ends as soon as the Warlord is discovered and defeated; there is no further requirement to “back out” of the dungeon…it is assumed to be “cleared”. Asa Amir could stabilize Hen Net and Ralph Arta before they die, and the PC’s have plenty of time to strip the downed orcs of their treasure, weapons, and armor. They can sell the orc barbarians’ masterwork greataxes, longbows and chain shirts for 495 gold pieces. The orc cleric’s chainmail, heavy wooden shield and masterwork heavy mace sell for 234.5 gold pieces. Additionally, they find 9 potions of cure light wounds on the orcs, and 200 more gold pieces. Adding in their 650 gold piece reward, the PC’s end up with quite a nice haul…1579.5 gold pieces, or 394 gold pieces, 7 silver pieces and 5 copper pieces each. The left over silver piece and potion of cure light wounds are given to Sister Soldier for extreme valor.
SECONDARY MISSION FAILURE: The side quest was a failure through no fault of the PC’s. Because they found the warlord so quickly, they never found the petty warlord…the dungeon was considered cleared out before they found him.

Experience Points: The characters defeated a CR ½ creature (200 xp) and 3 CR 1 creatures (400 xp each, for 1200 total). They gained a total of 1400 xp for this quest, or 350 each. If this were 3.5 edition, they would have received only 263 experience points each.

Seems like a good test. I'd like to see how similar tries with 5th, 10th, etc level PCs would go. Something else to keep in mind is that the Orc Barbarian would have been different due to changes in class. Not sure if he'd have been worse or better due to that.

Yeah, I intend to keep playing through level 5 at least, and I'll continue posting play-by-play reports. True about the Orc Barbarian, but since that class hasn't yet been included in the alpha release, I left it "as is".

If a bonded object is damaged, it is restored to full hit points the next time the wizard prepares his spells. If the subject of an arcane bond is lost or destroyed, it can be replaced after a week's time in a special ritual that costs 200 gp per wizard level. This ritual takes 8 hours to complete.

Not that, despite the first sentence's specific reference to the bonded object, the rest of the paragraph talks about "the subject of an arcane bond" - thus it means either the bonded object or the familiar.

Thanks, Shisumo, obviously I missed that.

My last question is whether a bonded object is masterwork, and if it must be purchased. My reading of the passage makes me think "no" on both counts, since there is never any clear indication how much a masterwork wand, amulet or ring costs. But if the object isn't masterwork, that also suggests a wizard could enchant her bonded weapon and ignore the standard "must be masterwork" restriction on enchantments.

Okay, that wasn't my last question. What happens to an enchanted bonded object when a wizard is killed? There doesn't seem to be any strict prohibition on someone else using an enchanted bonded object, and when the party wizard dies it might be useful to pick up his enchanted bonded sword/staff/whatever.

From the current rules as written, it seems summoning a familiar is free, as is bonding with an object, and that it can only be done at first level.

There also seems to be no explanation as to what happens if a bonded item or familiar is destroyed or killed. This lack of explanation, combined with the "at first level" restriction, leads me to believe that if your familiar is killed or your bonded item is destroyed, there is no way to replace it. You're sol.

My friends and I have challenging schedules that result in irregular games, but I was curious about the Pathfinder rules and so I decided to playtest them using the Dungeon Bash system published by The Other Games Company. Dungeon Bash is D&D turned into a board game, like Warhammer Quest or Heroquest, if you're familiar with those games, but using the D&D 3.5 rules. I've found it to be a challenging game, even using the solitaire rules, so I wanted to see if it would be more or less challenging using the Pathfinder RPG. I created the following Pathfinder RPG characters using the Dungeon Bash-recommended 25-point buy:

Round 3:
Random Encounter (1): Zombies
Two human commoner zombies follow the heroes into the dungeon, shambling up to ambush them from behind. The sound of their moaning and shuffling gives away their position (no ranks in move silently) and there is nothing behind which Ralph Arta can hide, so there is no surprise round. Initiative is rolled and combat begins.
Hen Net: Casts disrupt undead; four of his lines are blocked so the zombie receives +4 cover and Hen Net misses. Hen Net then moves back.
Asa Amir: Moves forward to within 30' of the zombies and turns undead. Both zombies save versus DC 12 and take minimal damage (2 hp each).
Zombies: Both Zombies shamble around the corner and engage Asa Amir.
Ralph Arta: Ralph realizes he has no slashing weapons and fires his shortbow; the zombies receive +4 cover and he misses.
Temp Lar: Temp Lar drops his spiked chain and moves next to Asa Amir, drawing his battleaxe as part of his movement and power attacking, but he misses.

Round 4:
Random Encounter (4): None.
Hen Net: Casts disrupt undead again; misses again.
Asa Amir: Turns undead again. This time one of the zombies fails its save and flees. The other takes 2 more damage. Asa Amir then uses mobility to back up four squares out of melee.
Zombies: The turned zombie withdraws and escapes out of sight. The unturned zombie clubs Temp Lar, hitting for 6 points of damage.
Ralph Arta: Fires his bow and hits, but the zombie's DR reduces to the damage to nothing.
Temp Lar: Attempts to power attack with an overhand chop and misses.

END OF COMBAT
Post-Combat Analysis: This combat ended in the third round after three successive rounds of turning undead. The net result was the loss of the 3 turn attempts and 4 hit points on the party fighter. In 3.5 edition the combat would have ended in the first round, before the zombies could act, with a single turn undead attempt that would have been successful (even considering that Asa Amir's charisma would have dropped to 12 as a result of her not gaining +2 to a single characteristic). Clearly, this particular combat was more difficult as a result of the PathfinderRPG changes to the turning rules.
Backward Compatibility: The zombies could be run as written since they don't have any skills and they're medium-sized. Their CMB is the same as their grapple check in their stat block.

Round 6:
Random Encounter (2): None
ICN1: Ralph Arta moves up, generating a series of corridors to the east, and then opens an unlocked iron door, generating a large room with six pillars, a lantern, and an orc barbarian guarding a locked wooden door. Ralph Arta catches the orc unaware and so the PC's have surprise. Unfortunately, the lantern hanging from the ceiling is unlit, and the torch in Ralph Arta's hallway doesn't penetrate the gloom of the dark room, so Ralph Arta is effectively blind.

BEGIN COMBAT

Surprise Round:
18 Hen Net: Moves forward to the corner.
14 Ralph Arta: Takes a 5' step back, knocks an arrow, and readies an attack against any orc that steps into the light.
12 Asa Amir: Casts light on her shield.
12 Temp Lar: Moves to the front of the line.

Round 7:
22 Ralph Arta: Readied attack activated (see below).
21 Orc Barbarian 1: Rages, moves to engage Temp Lar, but is interrupted by Ralph Arta's readied arrow, which hits for 7 damage (point blank shot). The Orc Barbarian ignores the pain and swings mightily at Temp Lar, but the fighter barely knocks away the orc's deadly axe.
18 Hen Net: Impressed by the orc's girth and worried for his friend and ally, Hen Net draws upon his sorcerous energy to conjure oil beneath their assailant(grease, DC 14). The orc is well-used to fighting in the slippery blood of his downed enemies, however, and easily keeps his feet.
12: Asa Amir: Asa steps back five feet and calls for Desna's aid. Through a dimensional rift centered on Asa's holy symbol bursts forth positive energy, healing Temp Lar 1 hit point. Asa has now used 4 of her 5 turn attempts for the day.
12: Temp Lar: The fighter has, unfortunately, not yet picked up his spiked chain and finds himself armed only with his battleaxe. He decides to match his assailant's mighty blows, attempting an overhand chop. The orc deftly side-steps the attack.

Round 8:
Random Encounter (4): None.
22 Ralph Arta: Steps back another five feet and fires another arrow right past Temp Lar. Sadly, the Orc has not yet attempted to move in the greased floor, so he is not flat-footed. This time the attack is errant, the missile cracking against a wall in the distant darkness.
21 Orc Barbarian 1: Once again the orc keeps his footing in the slippery mess, and once again he swings at Temp Lar with wild abandon, removing Temp Lar's head from his shoulders (greataxe critical hit for 27 damage, killing Temp Lar immediately). He grabs Temp Lar's head by his scalp, holds the bloody trophy aloft, and howls in triumph.
18 Hen Net: Horrified by his friend's grisly demise, Hen Net rushes behind Ralph Arta and begins to utter words of power that will allow him to divine the future (true strike). Meanwhile, his conjured grease dissipates into nothingness.
12 Asa Amir: Driven by the faith in her deity, Asa rushes forward to stand over her slain ally and (perhaps foolishly) challenge the raging barbarian monster.

Round 9:
Random Encounter (4): None.
22 Ralph Arta: Lets another arrow fly, piercing the orc in the shoulder for another 5 points of damge. Bleeding heavily from his two wounds and breathing hard, it seems anger alone is keeping the beast on his feet.
21 Orc Barbarian 1: His vision failing, the orc steps back, pulls a vile concoction from a pouch, downs it, and smashes the ceramic bottle that held it against his forehead. His wounds stop bleeding and he appears reinvigorated (potion of cure light wounds for 8 healing)
18 Hen Net: Delays.
12 Asa Amir: Presses the attack on the orc, stepping forward and slamming him with her light mace for another 5 points of damage.
11 Hen Net: His words of power now uttered, Hen Net is gifted with a vision of victory, and the brave wizard rushes forward, jabbing with his ranseur past Asa Amir, and gutting the orc like a pig. (9 damage with arcane strike) The orc stumbles, opens his mouth to say something, fails, and then drops to the floor.

END OF COMBAT

Post-Combat Analysis: Temp Lar's death was the result of over-confidence, poor preperation, and bad luck. The only difference the Pathfinder RPG made in this encounter from straight 3.5 rules was Asa Amir's ability to heal Temp Lar from range with a turn check, but that only resulted in 1 point of healing and turned out to be irrelevant. Even had he been at full health Temp Lar would have been decapitated by the orc's critical hit. With strength damage alone, the orc was doing +24 damage on a critical, and Temp's max hit points were 12. If Asa Amir had cast a light spell on Ralph Arta some previous turn, the rogue would have been able to see the orc during the surprise round, and could have hit him with a sneak attack early. The damage on the sneak attack might have been enough to force the orc to drink a potion of cure light wounds on the first round (since the damage would have come before the orc raged), and that slight delay might have resulted in enough damage to the orc, over the subsequent rounds, that his slaying blow never came. Since in the Pathfinder RPG light is a cantrip that can be cast at will, there is almost no reason for PC's not to have it "always on".
Backward Compatibility: Due to its low intelligence, the Orc Barbarian had only two skills -- Listen and Jump with max ranks in each. These were easily changed to Perception and Acrobatics, giving the Barbarian a lot more total skills (listen, spot, search, tumble, jump, climb, etc.) but basing the acrobatic ones on his low dex instead of his high strength. Since the only skill the Orc used was Perception (which he failed) this change in skills proved irrelevant for the combat.

Round 10:
Random Encounter (2): None
ICN1: Ralph Arta moves forward, behind the slain orc, and relieves the beast of his money purse (50 gp).
ICN2: Hen Net moves forward and pulls a potion off the creature.
ICN3: Asa Amir puts away her mace and pulls another potion off of the orc's belt. The orc's body has now been fully looted.

Round 22:
Random Encounter (6): 3 Skeletons
Three human warrior skeletons, drawn by the sound of the battle with the orc barbarian, clitter from deep within the dungeon toward the PC's. The skeletons have no skills, so they have no chance of surprising the PC's, and the PC's have nothing to hide behind, so they have no chance of surprising the skeletons.

BEGIN COMBAT

Round 23:
23 Ralph Arta: Steps 5' back toward the skeletons, draws, fires, and misses.
13 Skeletons: The first skeleton charges Ralph Arta, who dodges out of the scimitar's path. The next two skeletons move up to threaten Asa Amir.
07 Hen Net: Continues to drag Temp Lar another 5' toward the exit.
02 Asa Amir: Uses her last turn attempt on the skeletons. All three skeletons take 4 hit points of damage and one of them flees.

Round 24:
Random Encounter (4): None
23 Ralph Arta: Drops his bow and draws a club. The skeleton in melee with him is turned and does not take an attack of opportunity. Ralph Arta smashes a chunk out of the skeleton's skull (1 hp damage).
13 Skeletons: The turned skeleton withdraws from Ralph Arta but still draws an attack of opportunity from Asa Amir. She refrains from attacking it, however, from fear of breaking her successful turn, and it escapes out of sight. The next skeleton steps forward and swings at Ralph Arta, slicing open his sice for 7 points of damage. And the last skeleton attacks Asa Amir, but she deflects its attack with her shield.
07 Hen Net: Drags Temp Lar five more feet.
02 Asa Amir: Strikes at the skeleton attacking Ralph Arta, successfully smashing it to dust (2 hp damage).

Round 25:
Random Encounter (4): Human Commoner Zombie. This dungeon is filled with undead, it seems, for hardly has the skeleton disappeared around the corner before a zombie appears to take its place.
24 Zombie: Moves forward to engage Asa Amir.
23 Ralph Arta: Steps forward and smashes the remaining skeleton to dust with his club (2 hp damage).
07: Hen Net: Tries to attack the zombie with disrupt undead but misses.
02: Asa Amir: Steps back and heals Ralph Arta 7 points to full health (uses command).

Post-Combat Analysis: If this were 3.5, Asa Amir would have had plenty of turn attempts left to get rid of both the skeletons and the zombie pretty quickly. Undead appear to be much more difficult opponents in the Pathfinder RPG. On the other hand, if Ralph Arta hadn't been able to sneak attack the undead, the party would have been forced to flee, or the zombie may have tpk'd the party.
Backwards Compatibility: Because zombies and skeletons have no skills, they required no conversion to the Pathfinder rules.

END OF COMBAT
END OF QUEST
MISSION FAILURE: The heroes were only in the dungeon for a three and a half minutes before they were driven out, one of their number was slain and they were forced to leave him behind, and they never found the warlord, let alone fought him.

Experience Points: The party of four defeated 2 zombies (CR 1/2 each for a total of 400 xp; 100 xp each). Then the party of three defeated a first-level Orc Barbarian (CR 1 equals 400 xp; 133 xp each), three skeletons (CR 1/3 for a total of 305 xp; 102 xp each), and one more zombie (CR 1/2 equals 200 xp, so 66 xp each). Total XP for surviving characters: 401.
Comparison: Using 3.5 the characters would have only received 325 xp.

My friends and I have challenging schedules that result in irregular games, but I was curious about the Pathfinder rules and so I decided to playtest them using the Dungeon Bash system published by The Other Games Company. Dungeon Bash is D&D turned into a board game, like Warhammer Quest or Heroquest, if you're familiar with those games, but using the D&D 3.5 rules. I've found it to be a challenging game, even using the solitaire rules, so I wanted to see if it would be more or less challenging using the Pathfinder RPG. I created the following Pathfinder RPG characters using the Dungeon Bash-recommended 25-point buy:

Round 3:
Random Encounter (1): Zombies
Two human commoner zombies follow the heroes into the dungeon, shambling up to ambush them from behind. The sound of their moaning and shuffling gives away their position (no ranks in move silently) and there is nothing behind which Ralph Arta can hide, so there is no surprise round. Initiative is rolled and combat begins.
Hen Net: Casts disrupt undead; four of his lines are blocked so the zombie receives +4 cover and Hen Net misses. Hen Net then moves back.
Asa Amir: Moves forward to within 30' of the zombies and turns undead. Both zombies save versus DC 12 and take minimal damage (2 hp each).
Zombies: Both Zombies shamble around the corner and engage Asa Amir.
Ralph Arta: Ralph realizes he has no slashing weapons and fires his shortbow; the zombies receive +4 cover and he misses.
Temp Lar: Temp Lar drops his spiked chain and moves next to Asa Amir, drawing his battleaxe as part of his movement and power attacking, but he misses.

Round 4:
Random Encounter (4): None.
Hen Net: Casts disrupt undead again; misses again.
Asa Amir: Turns undead again. This time one of the zombies fails its save and flees. The other takes 2 more damage. Asa Amir then uses mobility to back up four squares out of melee.
Zombies: The turned zombie withdraws and escapes out of sight. The unturned zombie clubs Temp Lar, hitting for 6 points of damage.
Ralph Arta: Fires his bow and hits, but the zombie's DR reduces to the damage to nothing.
Temp Lar: Attempts to power attack with an overhand chop and misses.

END OF COMBAT
Post-Combat Analysis: This combat ended in the third round after three successive rounds of turning undead. The net result was the loss of the 3 turn attempts and 4 hit points on the party fighter. In 3.5 edition the combat would have ended in the first round, before the zombies could act, with a single turn undead attempt that would have been successful (even considering that Asa Amir's charisma would have dropped to 12 as a result of her not gaining +2 to a single characteristic). Clearly, this particular combat was more difficult as a result of the PathfinderRPG changes to the turning rules.
Backward Compatibility: The zombies could be run as written since they don't have any skills and they're medium-sized. Their CMB is the same as their grapple check in their stat block.

Round 6:
Random Encounter (2): None
ICN1: Ralph Arta moves up, generating a series of corridors to the east, and then opens an unlocked iron door, generating a large room with six pillars, a lantern, and an orc barbarian guarding a locked wooden door. Ralph Arta catches the orc unaware and so the PC's have surprise. Unfortunately, the lantern hanging from the ceiling is unlit, and the torch in Ralph Arta's hallway doesn't penetrate the gloom of the dark room, so Ralph Arta is effectively blind.

BEGIN COMBAT

Surprise Round:
18 Hen Net: Moves forward to the corner.
14 Ralph Arta: Takes a 5' step back, knocks an arrow, and readies an attack against any orc that steps into the light.
12 Asa Amir: Casts light on her shield.
12 Temp Lar: Moves to the front of the line.

Round 7:
22 Ralph Arta: Readied attack activated (see below).
21 Orc Barbarian 1: Rages, moves to engage Temp Lar, but is interrupted by Ralph Arta's readied arrow, which hits for 7 damage (point blank shot). The Orc Barbarian ignores the pain and swings mightily at Temp Lar, but the fighter barely knocks away the orc's deadly axe.
18 Hen Net: Impressed by the orc's girth and worried for his friend and ally, Hen Net draws upon his sorcerous energy to conjure oil beneath their assailant(grease, DC 14). The orc is well-used to fighting in the slippery blood of his downed enemies, however, and easily keeps his feet.
12: Asa Amir: Asa steps back five feet and calls for Desna's aid. Through a dimensional rift centered on Asa's holy symbol bursts forth positive energy, healing Temp Lar 1 hit point. Asa has now used 4 of her 5 turn attempts for the day.
12: Temp Lar: The fighter has, unfortunately, not yet picked up his spiked chain and finds himself armed only with his battleaxe. He decides to match his assailant's mighty blows, attempting an overhand chop. The orc deftly side-steps the attack.

Round 8:
Random Encounter (4): None.
22 Ralph Arta: Steps back another five feet and fires another arrow right past Temp Lar. Sadly, the Orc has not yet attempted to move in the greased floor, so he is not flat-footed. This time the attack is errant, the missile cracking against a wall in the distant darkness.
21 Orc Barbarian 1: Once again the orc keeps his footing in the slippery mess, and once again he swings at Temp Lar with wild abandon, removing Temp Lar's head from his shoulders (greataxe critical hit for 27 damage, killing Temp Lar immediately). He grabs Temp Lar's head by his scalp, holds the bloody trophy aloft, and howls in triumph.
18 Hen Net: Horrified by his friend's grisly demise, Hen Net rushes behind Ralph Arta and begins to utter words of power that will allow him to divine the future (true strike). Meanwhile, his conjured grease dissipates into nothingness.
12 Asa Amir: Driven by the faith in her deity, Asa rushes forward to stand over her slain ally and (perhaps foolishly) challenge the raging barbarian monster.

Round 9:
Random Encounter (4): None.
22 Ralph Arta: Lets another arrow fly, piercing the orc in the shoulder for another 5 points of damge. Bleeding heavily from his two wounds and breathing hard, it seems anger alone is keeping the beast on his feet.
21 Orc Barbarian 1: His vision failing, the orc steps back, pulls a vile concoction from a pouch, downs it, and smashes the ceramic bottle that held it against his forehead. His wounds stop bleeding and he appears reinvigorated (potion of cure light wounds for 8 healing)
18 Hen Net: Delays.
12 Asa Amir: Presses the attack on the orc, stepping forward and slamming him with her light mace for another 5 points of damage.
11 Hen Net: His words of power now uttered, Hen Net is gifted with a vision of victory, and the brave wizard rushes forward, jabbing with his ranseur past Asa Amir, and gutting the orc like a pig. (9 damage with arcane strike) The orc stumbles, opens his mouth to say something, fails, and then drops to the floor.

END OF COMBAT

Post-Combat Analysis: Temp Lar's death was the result of over-confidence, poor preperation, and bad luck. The only difference the Pathfinder RPG made in this encounter from straight 3.5 rules was Asa Amir's ability to heal Temp Lar from range with a turn check, but that only resulted in 1 point of healing and turned out to be irrelevant. Even had he been at full health Temp Lar would have been decapitated by the orc's critical hit. With strength damage alone, the orc was doing +21 damage on a critical, and Temp's max hit points were 12. If Asa Amir had cast a light spell on Ralph Arta some previous turn, the rogue would have been able to see the orc during the surprise round, and could have hit him with a sneak attack early. The damage on the sneak attack might have been enough to force the orc to drink a potion of cure light wounds on the first round (since the damage would have come before the orc raged), and that slight delay might have resulted in enough damage to the orc, over the subsequent rounds, that his slaying blow never came. Since in the Pathfinder RPG light is a cantrip that can be cast at will, there is almost no reason for PC's not to have it "always on".
Backward Compatibility: Due to its low intelligence, the Orc Barbarian had only two skills -- Listen and Jump with max ranks in each. These were easily changed to Perception and Acrobatics, giving the Barbarian a lot more total skills (listen, spot, search, tumble, jump, climb, etc.) but basing the acrobatic ones on his low dex instead of his high strength. Since the only skill the Orc used was Perception (which he failed) this change in skills proved irrelevant for the combat.

Round 10:
Random Encounter (2): None
ICN1: Ralph Arta moves forward, behind the slain orc, and relieves the beast of his money purse (50 gp).
ICN2: Hen Net moves forward and pulls a potion off the creature.
ICN3: Asa Amir puts away her mace and pulls another potion off of the orc's belt. The orc's body has now been fully looted.

Round 22:
Random Encounter (6): 3 Skeletons
Three human warrior skeletons, drawn by the sound of the battle with the orc barbarian, clitter from deep within the dungeon toward the PC's. The skeletons have no skills, so they have no chance of surprising the PC's, and the PC's have nothing to hide behind, so they have no chance of surprising the skeletons.

BEGIN COMBAT

Round 23:
23 Ralph Arta: Steps 5' back toward the skeletons, draws, fires, and misses.
13 Skeletons: The first skeleton charges Ralph Arta, who dodges out of the scimitar's path. The next two skeletons move up to threaten Asa Amir.
07 Hen Net: Continues to drag Temp Lar another 5' toward the exit.
02 Asa Amir: Uses her last turn attempt on the skeletons. All three skeletons take 4 hit points of damage and one of them flees.

Round 24:
Random Encounter (4): None
23 Ralph Arta: Drops his bow and draws a club. The skeleton in melee with him is turned and does not take an attack of opportunity. Ralph Arta smashes a chunk out of the skeleton's skull (1 hp damage).
13 Skeletons: The turned skeleton withdraws from Ralph Arta but still draws an attack of opportunity from Asa Amir. She refrains from attacking it, however, from fear of breaking her successful turn, and it escapes out of sight. The next skeleton steps forward and swings at Ralph Arta, slicing open his sice for 7 points of damage. And the last skeleton attacks Asa Amir, but she deflects its attack with her shield.
07 Hen Net: Drags Temp Lar five more feet.
02 Asa Amir: Strikes at the skeleton attacking Ralph Arta, successfully smashing it to dust (2 hp damage).

Round 25:
Random Encounter (4): Human Commoner Zombie. This dungeon is filled with undead, it seems, for hardly has the skeleton disappeared around the corner before a zombie appears to take its place.
24 Zombie: Moves forward to engage Asa Amir.
23 Ralph Arta: Steps forward and smashes the remaining skeleton to dust with his club (2 hp damage).
07: Hen Net: Tries to attack the zombie with disrupt undead but misses.
02: Asa Amir: Steps back and heals Ralph Arta 7 points to full health (uses command).

Post-Combat Analysis: If this were 3.5, Asa Amir would have had plenty of turn attempts left to get rid of both the skeletons and the zombie pretty quickly. Undead appear to be much more difficult opponents in the Pathfinder RPG. On the other hand, if Ralph Arta hadn't been able to sneak attack the undead, the party would have been forced to flee, or the zombie may have tpk'd the party.
Backwards Compatibility: Because zombies and skeletons have no skills, they required no conversion to the Pathfinder rules.

END OF COMBAT
END OF QUEST
MISSION FAILURE: The heroes were only in the dungeon for a three and a half minutes before they were driven out, one of their number was slain and they were forced to leave him behind, and they never found the warlord, let alone fought him.

Experience Points: The party of four defeated 2 zombies (CR 1/2 each for a total of 400 xp; 100 xp each). Then the party of three defeated a first-level Orc Barbarian (CR 1 equals 400 xp; 133 xp each), three skeletons (CR 1/3 for a total of 305 xp; 102 xp each), and one more zombie (CR 1/2 equals 200 xp, so 66 xp each). Total XP for surviving characters: 401.
Comparison: Using 3.5 the characters would have only received 325 xp.

There's a lot of good advice here for DM's. Now I'd like to offer a bit of advice for players...be flexible.

You're going to be playing with a lot of different DM's and a lot of different players. They will not only have different styles, but also different understandings of the rules. If you think a ruling from a DM is "incorrect" it's perfectly acceptable to argue your point...briefly...but if your argument doesn't immediately convince the DM (like "look at page 46 of the pathfinder rpg" or the equivelant) drop it and accept the ruling. Adjust your thinking/tactics for the rest of the module and move on.

Have the US light a smokestick so you can sneak attack from range.
Have the US re-load one heavy crossbow while you're shooting another.
Have the US provide total cover for you w/ Tower Shield (same as silk trick).
Have the US drop caltrops in front of your opponents.
Have the US feed you or your allies healing potions while you fight.

However, that said, you're always better off with a mithril breastplate then Elven Chain, since the 50 gp difference in cost between a mithril breastplate and elven chain is pretty irrelevant once you're talking about something costing upwards of 8k.